Wolverine leak claims first victim?

A FoxNews.com journalist got himself into serious hot water over the weekend after he published a review of an illegally downloaded copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine ahead of its 1 May release. As we reported last week, an incomplete version of the superhero movie was leaked early onto various BitTorrent websites, and since …

[Richard]

Plonker

That's really all I can say. It's like people posting videos of themselves speeding on YouTube. Check and mate sucker.

[Anonymous Coward]

Raid In Dallas?

Would this be the raid that also took down an entire ISP datacenter, disrupting dozens of companies and even people's 911 service?

http://cbs11tv.com/local/Core.IP.Networks.2.974706.html

[Brock Linahan]

FOX is to blame

If there was any wrong doing here (dubious, IMO), then why the heck did FOX run the guy's review in the first place? Wasn't there an editor who said "No, we can't run this piece. You obtained the movie illegally?" Or did an editor approve it, and FOX is only now hanging the reviewer out to dry now that some people have freaked out?

Personally, I'm hoping the guy told whoever that he viewed the movie by Googling it and simply clicking on one of the results, which is certainly possible to do.

[Oliver]

FFS!

"following his decision to illegally download Wolverine"

Get it right! There's nothing illegal about downloading copyrighted content per se, it's uploading which is technically a civil offence.

Is there a job equivalent of the Darwin award though, 'cause this guy should win it hands down. Given the fact that Fox are his employers he must have had an inkling what would happen?

Paris, because she's a fox!

[Alex maximus]

Move along - nothing to see here...

'Tis probably just another attempt to create buzz for an under-performing flick (just guessing here, though). Just some talking up and name dropping.

Paris, since she knows how to market with nothing in store.

[Dick Emery]

Publicity Stunt

Even bad publicity is good publicity.

Paris knows all about that.

[George Forth]

Real or no real?

Hmmm... uncorroborated this, denied the other...

Did Fox deliberately leaked the film as a marketing stunt? And are they now continuining to keep the story in the news by creating a fuss?

Of course, if they did, they could never admit it as it would be condoning "illegal" filesharing, but it would be a delicious scandal...

[Anonymous Coward]

erm,

""Roger Friedman's views in no way reflect the views of News Corporation. We, along with 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, have been a consistent leader in the fight against piracy and have zero tolerance for any action that encourages and promotes piracy."

Aren't Fox owned by Murdoch which owns Sky who allow their users to download films illegally?

I personally don't have a huge problem with film piracy, I can see news corp having some problems squaring this circle.

[this]

Terminated

My God, they terminated him! Maybe they watch too many of their own shows...

[Anonymous Bastard]

Illegal?

"Reports over the weekend claim that News Corp, which owns Fox News and 20th Century Fox, had fired Friedman following his decision to illegally download Wolverine."

Surely it's the duty of the courts to decide if it is illegal or not. As far as I'm aware only the distribution and promotion of piracy is illegal but merely receiving a hot copy is not. Of course Friedman could be found guilty of promoting the practice by writing an article about it, but for the downloading itself, I think not.

[Piers]

"promptly terminated Mr Friedman..."

seems a bit harsh...

[Les Matthew]

"Wolverine leak claims first victim?"

Shouldn't that read

"Wolverine leak claims first idiot?"

[Law]

<palm target="face" action="slap" />

stupid stupid stupid..... or extremely clever... I've not decided yet.

[jake]

Distribution.

"Its distributor, 20th Century Fox, coughed to the embarrassing leak the following day, when the studio said it would easily be able to track down the culprit."

I don't condone breaking existing laws, but the cold hard reality is that the studios no longer have a monopoly on the distribution channels. The laws need to change.

[Mark]

"...terminated Mr Freidman"?

NewsCorp says death to copyright infringers!

[David Wilkinson]

Free advertising.

I forgot that movie was coming out!

The probably should have leaked it themselves for the promotional value.

I can't imagine anyone who was going to see this in the theater not going because they can download it and watch it on their computer screen. Even if they have their PC's hooked up to some serious home theater equipment its not the same as going out to see a movie.

As for the reporter getting fired, I really have strong issues with our news being owed by big corporations. We need independent journalists not corporate lackeys.

[Kwac]

intelluctually stunted

enough to qualify for a position at Fox News.

Surely he will be sadly missed, even with this idiot gone the average IQ has probably decreased.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bit harsh...

"When we advised Fox News of the facts they took immediate action, removed the post, and promptly terminated Mr Friedman"

Yowzer - terminating a guy? They could have simply fired the chap.

[Gareth Irwin]

So

When this thing makes fucking millions at the box office do you think all these spoons will layoff the 'home taping is killing everything' and variants of?

[Tommy Pock]

"Promptly terminated Mr. Friedman."

Bloody hell, that's what they do over there?? Bit harsh

[MacRat]

Fox - News - Journalist

Those words don't fit together

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

@ffs

> Get it right! There's nothing illegal about downloading copyrighted content per se, it's uploading which is technically a civil offence.

Plus there's the "small" matter of fair use which explicitly gives people the right to copy the material provided it's for review purposes. I'm sure such reasoning wouldn't work for the regular Joe Soap in a court of law, but since this guy is/was paid to review films, there is nothing illegal in what he did, and, knowing this, I doubt any prosecutor would even attempt to bring a case against him.

I hope he sues for unfair dismissal.

[Kevin Thomas]

"Wolverine leak claims first victim?"

Well I for one am happy to see that the embarrassment and obvious dangers of incontinence are now being brought to the fore through this very public medium. Good on Mr Jackman for taking on such a brave storyline.

I know, I know....TAXI!

[Anonymous Coward]

Workprint

Irrespecitve of the morality, etc. of downloading a movie, the release in question was a workprint that had not had the special effects added or the stunt wires hidden. I guess there was sufficient dialogue to review (ha! dialogue? This is a Marvel movie!) but I would imagine this would certainly colour any view of the overall film, to the point where the review would be largely useless.

Imagine Superman walking along the street and just staring intently at villains.......

This icon really needs a little blood spatter on it.....

[Bassey]

Given how dire...

Given how dire the previous films were (although, in fairness, I slept through quite a bit of the last one so I might have missed some really good bits) they are going to need all the fake hype and publicity they can generate.

[Anonymous Coward]

When downloading is uploading

To those who say there's nothing wrong with downloading, legally at least, remember that if you're downloading via bitorrent and not leeching then your uploading as well and hence distributing. Whether this film was actually distributed via bitorrent I don't know, but I would imagine it was.

[Luis Ogando]

@ Gareth Irwin

No, not at all.

The people at the top will never be satisfied with however many millions they make. They'll always want more. They're greedy, conniving and spiteful to the degree that they'll sack a bloke purely to create more buzz for a film that, in all fairness, will probably do better than OK anyway.

Paris, 'cos compared to this lot she's actually GOT morals!!

[Dennis]

Was the review any good?

I can imagine if he said the film was like all the other X-Men films i.e. Shite!

that's why he was given the bullet.

If he had raved about it then he would probabily still be in a job.

It isn't the first time a studio/famous person has leaked a film onto the internet. Slumdog Millionaire done all right. I guess the difference is Slumdog was a good film. And it certainly didn't effect the money made on that film

By the way I haven't seen the film and with a little bit of luck I will be able to avoid it, despite their shameless promotion.

And of of course Paris: She knows how to use the Internet for shameless promotion. And her film was pretty good.

[Mark]

@Oliver

You might be right that there is nothing illegal about downloading copyright content per se, but I think you might have a hard time convincing a US court that this is the case when you do it without the permission of the rights owner. However, you might say there is a case for a fair use defence, though the illegal nature of the source and the fact that the film had not been released could possibly count against you.

[DutchOven]

Imortant Info missing from article

Is the movie any good? Was his review a favourable one?

My guess is that the answer to both those questions is a resounding "No" and that this is all a big publicity stunt.

I secretly suspect that this is another special effects movie and that the plot (if there is one) is going to be pretty bad. Of course, the plot isn't going to change just because some special effects are not yet in place.... so the review could be very accurate. Maybe a little too accurate!

[g e]

the studio said it would easily be able to track down the culprit

Well they haven't yet trumpeted an arrest have they?

Can't be THAT easy then...

[Anonymous Coward]

S'alright

Seen it, its ok.

Typical of what you'd expect really, OTT acting, goes a bit off kilter towards the end, bit badly paced.

If you liked X Men then you'll like this, disengage brain, and try not to get all Fanboi on it.

As for the fact its a Workprint, its all good for 90% of the film, few computer models of planes, odd wire still in here and there.

Towards the end its not cleaned up, but still perfectly watchable

[Pete Randall]

@Dennis/DutchOven: It was a good review

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7987136.stm

"I doubt anyone else has seen this film. But everyone can relax. I am, in fact, amazed about how great Wolverine turned out. It exceeds expectations at every turn."

[Leo Davidson]

News Corp seem to be pro-piracy when it suits them

--8<--

"Roger Friedman's views in no way reflect the views of News Corporation. We, along with 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, have been a consistent leader in the fight against piracy and have zero tolerance for any action that encourages and promotes piracy.

-->8--

Yeah, right... Maybe when it comes to piracy of stuff you own, but not so much when it comes to piracy in general:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NDS_Group#Piracy

[Anonymous Coward]

Only an idiot would pay first...

Given the following I only purchase a film (which i will do if the film is decent and I would want to see it again) if i have been able to view the film beforehand - before bittorrent I based my purchases on the reviews or trailers and in many cases i was dissapointed...

Movie advertising posters carry a minimum of actual information regarding the films content and trailers contain 1-3 of probably the best/only entertaining minutes the file contains.

Its also highly unlikely that you would get a refund on a purchased film if you took it back with the explanation that the plot was poor, the actors wooden and the dialog terrible.

Many reviewers cannot be relied on to give a decent review of a film and whose to say their opinions regarding a particular film would match my own...

If no one bought crap films the studios would soon wake up and stop churning out shite...

[Paul]

Copyright...

There remains the problem that, as an unreleased film, this may fall in to the catagory of theft and not copyright. Whilst it may not have any value as such, it can be argued that he was a party to the theft of a film not ment for public viewing. This is not an "on the market" film, but some rushes.

[Lord Radstock]

I doubt anyone else has seen this film

Based on that comment alone, the guy is obviously a first class retard.

Paris, because everyone has seen her film.

[raving angry loony]

it's a small start.

One down. How many more FauxNews shills to go? Oh well, at least it's one less. Me, I just wish the whole network would just drop dead.

[Brock Linahan]

Ever heard of editors?

Does Fox News let their writers simply publish their articles on the website all by themselves? Don't they have editors deciding what pieces should run and which shouldn't? If they don't they should be blaming themselves, not the writer. And if they do, they should blame the editor for deciding to run the piece.

[LaeMi Qian]

@If no one bought crap films

"If no one bought crap films the studios would soon wake up and stop churning out shite..."

should read:

If no one bought crap films the studios would blame the internet for their inability to make money 'entertaining' the public.

[mark]

DL not illegal??? wtf?

I dont why I f*cking bother cos no-ones gonna come back to read this but......

quote:

"Get it right! There's nothing illegal about downloading copyrighted content per se, it's uploading which is technically a civil offence."

The level of ignorance is just astounding. there i was thinking all the pirates just dont give a crap , when it turns out they're just too stupid to realise they are commiting a crime.

the mind boggles

Paris, cos its a close call in the IQ stakes