In digital age, can movie piracy be stopped?
Whether its “Global warming” v. “Climate change” or “File sharing v. Piracy”, setting the vocabularly of the conversation can set the tone. Here are two different views on the incomplete versions of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” that have been available on the Internet for the last month.
From the CNN point of view:
—————————
By Lisa Respers France
(CNN) — When the highly anticipated movie “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” opened Friday in theaters, many fans had already seen it.
The pirating and distribution of “Wolverine,” starring Hugh Jackman, is being investigated by the FBI.
The online leak of a pirated, unfinished version of the 20th Century Fox film a month ago sent federal authorities springing into action and stoked a heated conversation within the entertainment industry about digital piracy.
Piracy of upcoming films is not new, but the theft of “Wolverine” is especially troubling for an industry concerned with a stalled economy and the financial bottom line.
Within a week of “Wolverine’s” March 31 leak, more than a million people had downloaded the movie, according to TorrentFreak, a blog devoted to the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol….(read full article at CNN.)
(Underlines added. Notice how “file-sharing” is mentioned only as an adjective to “protocol,” while “piracy” is repreated until it is replaced with “theft”.)
From the Media Blogging point of view:
_________________________
In another interesting look at the issue, Jason Kotke looks at what happens to mainstream columnists who review such pirated works. Apparently, they never work in this town again.
“We’ve just been made aware that Roger Friedman, a freelance columnist who writes Fox 411 on Foxnews.com — an entirely separate company from 20th Century Fox — watched on the Internet and reviewed a stolen and unfinished version of ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine.’ This behavior is reprehensible and we condemn this act categorically — whether the review is good or bad.”
A tip to freelance columnists out there–don’t admit that you watch torrents and don’t get caught reviewing one!
RSS
