FoxNews.com columnist Roger Friedman fired for writting a review of the leaked X-men movie

[hendo]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/05/roger-friedman-fired-by-f_n_183293.html

It all seems just a bit insane to me. Seems as though Fox would have liked his fanboy-ish review. All the write-ups about it seem to suggest that Friedman gave the movie an extremely popular review.

Apparently Fox thought it needed to make an example of him.

[Renew Deal]

1. I think it's a 20th Century Fox movie.

So it's all in the family.

[hendo]

4. yup, he borrowed from his company to write a glowing review of thier own movie. NT

[tanyev]

2. Maybe if you're writing a review from a pirated copy,

you shouldn't spend the first part of the review gushing about how easy it was to access illegally.

[hendo]

3. but thats just the point, isn't it? Piracy is extremely easy.

And, only once the MPAA and the RIAA come to realize that can an intelligent discussion of the matter be carried foreword. The world is changing, and the industry execs are failing to realize it.

[blogslut]

5. From what I've read, the leaked film was a "working version"

In other words, an incomplete version of the film. Probably obtained via a studio-sponsored screening for industry buzzers.

Either that or some studio executive's kid is pilfering mommy or daddy's copy for shits and giggles.

[hendo]

6. all that its missing is textures on the gray blobby models for some of the CGI

that, and you can see all the wires when the characters jump high, get thrown, etc.

[blogslut]

9. Yeah, I get it

I'm just saying that movie studios are either grossly negligent when it comes to protecting their product or they're complicit in the leaking.

[hendo]

10. yeah, it might be a publicity stunt. NT

[Wetzelbill]

7. he's the least of people that need firing at Fox

[hendo]

8. yeah, he has done far less damage to fox than the corespondents on Fox News. NT

[hendo]

11. I guess the guy really was an idiot.

http://gawker.com/5200958/its-official-roger-friedman-loses-his-job-over-wolverine-piracy

"I did not download anything. I found Wolverine on the internet by accident on Wednesday night. I was looking for something else—info on another movie, which had a link to this site. I simply pressed "play" and when I realized it really was Wolverine, I skipped watching Lost and watched this instead. Afterwards I discovered that the Times had written about it earlier that evening. I guess what I did was called streaming. But there was no downloading. I am fervently anti-piracy, have written extensively about this, and spent too much money at amazon's mp3 site. Please let's clear up this misconception."

[slay]

13. Sound like he kinda is

First he blames it on an "accident" which I can kind of believe cause I know the sites he is talking about - but they aren't where you go for info on movies, but anyways - then he justifies it by saying The Times did it first. Come on - either have some balls about it or don't! And I guess he don't - "I am fervently anti-piracy." I don't think he knows what true piracy is (ie - see ship taken over by REAL PIRATES off coast of Somalia). Just cause the talking heads have called file sharing piracy for so long don't make it so. He didn't make a dime off watching it - or sharing it - or whatever he did - Fox hasn't lost any money over it, and it won't cause any harm to the financial success of the movie - if anything the word of mouth did it some good. See my post below for my reasons why. But yeah - ugh - sounds like a typical Fox dumbass.

[hendo]

14. many who engage in file sharing wear the pirate-badge proudly

They have taken the insult and adopted it as a rallying cry.

[slay]

16. I would - except for the real pirates at sea who have been all over the news today

causeing real trouble - but yeah - i'm all for thepiratebay and feel pretty confident they will win their trial.

until ya reassemble it, it's all just 1's and 0's anyways.. ;)

[hendo]

17. and even if they do take down TPB, another will rise

Honestly, I'm surprised that mininova doesnt get more threats.

[slay]

19. indeed

i remember the days of supernova, now mininova is huge, and others. plenty of private trackers too as well as usenet and irc if necessary.. heh.. power to the people! :smoke:

[hendo]

20. yeah, if they crack down too hard on torrents

I will just return to IRC, or just abandon public trackers.

[slay]

21. i used to do alot on irc

mostly tv show stuff before the major release groups got into the scene.. like buffy the vampire slayer, farscape and the like.. usually on efnet.. yep.. the "underground" will always be there.. and thankfully it was there when the columbine school shooting happened and the execs at the WB network decided part 2 of the two part season finale of buffy was too violent so they just refused to air it! thankfully canada had aired it a day earlier so buffy creator joss whedon on finding out that we couldn't see part 2 of the finale unless through tape trading or file sharing he said - "pirate the puppy!" - and that was a fox produced show.. and he is still working at fox.. his show dollhouse is in the top 10 downloads listed by torrentfreak every week, but also draws over 4 million viewers on a friday night which is pretty damn good for a friday night and with the huge success of his internet show dr horrible, i think at least the tv dept at fox is not making such a big deal out of file sharing anymore and recognizing that the way people get their entertainment has changed and is still changing.. interesting times we are living in - and the underground is not usually just one step, but ten steps ahead of the corporate doofuses.. just look at how long it took them to come up with hulu.. heh.. see ya round the underground bro.. :smoke:

[slay]

12. Movies get leaked on the internet all the time - Fox execs are just being dicks

Big surprise. So what if a movie gets leaked on the internet. It's not as big a deal as people claim it to be. First off - nobody wants to watch a crappy copy (at least compared with the finished theatrical version) on their computer - not if it's a movie they are really looking forward to. (I can guarantee you I will see Star Trek the first week it comes out in the theater, regardless if there are pirated copies out there or not.) I just watched the DVD of John Rambo and WISHED I could pay to see that badass movie in a theater. If you really want to see a movie, you'll go see it in the theaters - like I did with Watchmen even though I "maybe" also have a downloaded copy floating around somewhere. Also, word of mouth from these downloaders spreads to their friends who either don't have time to d/l it or would rather see it in a theater like most people. Most of the people who only d/l movies and then don't see them in the theater are poor college students. So fuck off Fox ya idiots! Be cool if somebody would hire this guy to write "Leaked Movie Reviews!" :rofl:

[hendo]

15. all that the leaked copy did was make me want to see it in theaters that much more.

edit: then again, they did screw up a few characters. but I knew that before i watched it.

[hendo]

18. For those of you who are interested

a copy of the original article can be found here: http://www.pop.com/movies/3277055/board?viewpost=4076378

[hendo]

22. and it sinks like a stone.

[librechik]

23. Why? Didn't you know Faux TV is a BASTION of Justice and Righteousness?

They can't let a crime like this go unpunished!!

(only the 24/7 liestream they call their news cycle)