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Michael Moore Sends Takedown Letter Over Torrent of Film

Michael Moore has generated considerable publicity over his decision to make his latest film – Slacker Uprising – freely available online.  Moore states that you can do whatever you want with the film, but EasyDNS reports that did not stop his lawyers from sending a takedown request regarding a torrent of the film.

6 Comments

  1. michael moore is compassionate
    are these lawyers representing michael moore or the wienstien company? I highly doubt michael moore would advocate such legal procedures especially after he made such comments as “im giving you my blanket permission”. The movie is about voting I doubt he wants less young voters to see his film.

  2. torrent
    weird. i grabbed the film via a torrent that was made available directly from the michael moore site. it was a public torrent, that they made available themselves.

    what confuses me, is that they are directly making the film available to those in the US and Canada via bittorrent, then they send a C&D to a Canadian who is using that torrent?

    Sure the actual torrent user was later determined by the lawyers to not be in Canada… but then why the initial C&D when they thought the user was in Canada?

    Here’s a link to the torrent on the moore site:
    [ link ]

  3. Anthony Marco says:

    motivation
    Moore is only concerned the people are getting the film via torrent because it decreases the one value he’s getting from releasing it free via the web: email addresses.

    Ever since I downloaded the film, I’ve had a message every day from the Moore camp and, while I don’t begrudge the trade off, and I realize I could opt out, his value with the upcoming election is mobilizing followers via his growing list. Torrent sharing will never afford him that information.

  4. Im on his mailing list as well but hes only been handing out emails everyday to his supporters because of the so called “financial crisis”. He was successful in getting enough people to email their senators to protest the first bailout bill. I even went as far as congratulating Mr moore in a personal email to him (whether he’ll ever see it who knows) for making his film available to the masses free of charge. I am slightly shocked about this takedown notice; he had to know when he gives his blanket permission its going everywhere quick! Furthermore he knows he has fans worldwide so as to why he would attempt to prevent world wide circulation is beyond me but then again I have never produced a film from my own pocket of this magnitude.

  5. torrent
    I don’t get this at all – like Chris above, I was directed to a torrent site by the official Slacker site and downloaded it like any file via torrent

  6. I attempted to d-load, “Sickos,” upon Mr. Moore’s carte blanche offer for all to d-load it free.
    Imagine my surprise when, my ISP informed me that Mr.Moore’s camp had, “sampled” my torrent feed & threatened me with legal action.
    Moore’s contention was, that since I was using a torrent, I was illegally distributing his work, without credit. They claimed that I could be charging money to those who were on the up-load side of the torrent.
    The funny thing was, that the d-load turned out to be something other than, “Sicko,” despite my intention to d-load, “Sicko.”
    My response to my ISP was;
    1) Downloading is legal in Canada
    2) Torrents are legal for use in Canada
    3) Their, “sampling,” of my feed was an illegal search, condoned by them
    4) As my ISP, it was their responsibility to inform others of the Laws, in Canada, not mine
    5) it was also their duty, as per CRTC regulations, to protect their subscribers from invasions of their privacy
    6) Since there is NO written or verbal communication , between me & those up-loading from me, while I d-loaded from them, the chance of any nefarious financial or barter transaction between us, was not likely.
    7) The electronic trail was not unique, especially when pseudonyms, not proper names are involved.
    I understand the purpose of Michael Moore’s offer is to amass a database of names & addresses, but offering something for FREE, is supposed to mean, no charge. When you have International boundaries & Laws, where & to whom you offer to, can be the difference.
    It is ironic that Michael Moore, via a company, would stalk & threaten individual people & claim that it was being wronged.
    He should watch his first production, “Roger & Me,” again. After which, go over all his TV appearances, in the ensuing 5 years.
    A pot, a kettle & the colour, black, come to mind.