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Author
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Topic: Fahrenheit 911: Bootlegging as a political tool
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William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 07-02-2004 01:03 AM
Daryl needs to excrete some code to stopwatch how long it takes for a thread to get locked.
E!Online story on Yahoo
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Playing "Fahrenheit"?
Thu Jul 1, 7:45 PM ET
By Joal Ryan
For once, perhaps, Jim Kenefick has taken Michael Moore at his word.
Armed with a Moore sound bite in which the Oscar-winning gadfly says he doesn't "have a problem with people downloading" his movies, Kenefick is doing as the man says--and encouraging Netizens to download the filmmaker's latest incendiary device, Fahrenheit 9/11.
"Clearly, we have an agenda," Kenefick, who co-runs the anti-Moore site, Moorewatch.com, said Thursday. "We want people to watch it. Let's face it: I don't mind being a bee in his bonnet."
On Sunday, an off-site link to a bootlegged copy of Moore's hit documentary went up on Moorewatch.com, which is "dedicated to unearthing the truth behind the doublespeak and falsehood that spews from the mouth...of Michael Moore on a regular basis."
Four server-crashing days later, the link is still there (if you can get to the page--it's found under a June 27 posted titled "Steal This Movie"). Moore's distributor is still fuming, and Kenefick is still unbowed.
"I absolutely, positively will not cave to a fancy lawyer threat," Kenefick said.
Not that he has heard from any lawyers. As of Thursday noon, Kenefick said he hadn't been contacted by reps for Moore or Lions Gate Films, which partnered with IFC to pick up the Disney-dumped Fahrenheit. The President Bush (news - web sites)-bashing film grossed $23.9 million last weekend, a record for a documentary.
In the Hollywood Reporter, Lions Gate president Tom Ortenberg talked "legal options" with regard to the Internet download issue.
"I think it's deplorable what enemies of Fahrenheit 9/11 are doing," Ortenberg said in the trade paper. "We are currently looking into our legal options. We are not going to tolerate anybody trying to infringe on [the film's release]."
Ironically, the anti-piracy warriors at the Motion Picture Association of America can be counted out in the fight over Fahrenheit.
MPAA spokesman Matthew Grossman said Thursday that since Lions Gate, which recently battled the organization's ratings board over Moore's documentary, isn't a member of the movie-lobbying group, the MPAA doesn't have the authority to go after bootleggers of its films.
"[But] just because our anti-piracy guys can't send out a cease-and-desist letter doesn't mean that when we do for these laws [we'll ignore the issue]," Grossman said. "What's important to us is that we change this culture of intellectual property violations."
The prospect of the MPAA going to bat for Fahrenheit is a tantalizing one, considering that the group recently did battle with Moore over the film's rating. Moore wanted a teen-friendly PG-13; the MPAA wanted, and got, an adult-friendly R.
For his part, the 34-year-old Kenefick, who has watched Fahrenheit "a number of times" on his computer, said he generally supports copyright laws.
"The MPAA, the companies that make these films, [they] have the right to say you can't do this," Kenefick said.
And while Kenefick said he wouldn't help his readers find an Internet bootleg of, say, Spider-Man 2, he said Fahrenheit 9/11 is a different matter--presenting a chance to tweak what he views as Moore's hypocrisy.
To Moorewatch.com, exhibit A is an exchange, said to be from a pre-Cannes, European press conference, in which Moore tells a reporter he doesn't "agree with the copyright laws." (A link to the clip is available on the site.)
"I don't have a problem with people downloading the movie and sharing it with people," Moore is heard saying. "As long as they're not doing it to make a profit off it, as long as they're not trying to make a profit off my labor."
Kenefick said he took up Moore (under fire himself from Ray Bradbury for borrowing his film's title from the author's legendary book Fahrenheit 451) on the challenge when a reader emailed him a link to the Fahrenheit download.
"Let's see if Moore really wants this to be about the work and not the money," Kenefick wrote on Moorewatch.com in the "Steal This Movie" post. "Let's get as many people to see this for themselves, and for free, as we can. Mikey, if you want to sue me, I'm not hard to find."
Certainly, Moorewatch.com hasn't been difficult for users to find (server issues aside). Traffic has tripled, to one million page views in June, Kenefick said.
If a court ordered Moorewatch.com to delete its Fahrenheit link, Kenefick said he would, but he promised that Moore wouldn't see the end of the movie on the Internet.
Said Kenefick, with a bravado that Moore might appreciate: "You can't beat something like this."
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