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July 22, 2007
Michael Moore on copyright, communal experience and piracy
In a Sunday afternoon barrage of questions and a handful of answers during an online chat at the Crooks & Liars website, Michael Moore again introduces, but does not fully explain his feelings about copyright and piracy. In fact, he only muddies the waters, while some later commenters in the thicket of replies do bring up some of the issues about eternal corporate control of copyright, which in its beginnings, was of much, much smaller duration. "As for downloading, I made this movie to be seen in a movie theater. If i wanted to make 
TV or internet movies for a small screen to be watched alone, that’s what I’d do. but i want them seen on the big screen. and you should see it with 200 other people in the theater. From all reports, it’s a powerful experience to see Sicko that way. Having said all that, I am in total disagreement with the copyright laws in this country and I believe that people should be able to share information and art.." A later query: "[W]ho do you think is behind placing a digital copy of the film on the net, and was this done to hurt grosses to make your film look like a failure?" Moore replies, "I think the answer to who was behind it is pretty clear. This is the MASTER digital copy that’s out there. Only people who had big bucks to pay someone off to obtain this could make that happen. I’ve read estimates that its been downloaded anywhere between 2 million and 20 million times around the world. Nonetheless, it is now in the top five grossing docs of all time and the Weinstein Company continue to put it in more and more theaters every weekend. I also believe that those who see it online tell others to go see it, and they do, so in the end it probably doesn’t hurt that much. But that was the intent. To try and kill the film. We will find out who paid to have this done."
[Photo © 2007 Ray Pride.]
Posted by Ray Pride at July 22, 2007 06:31 PM
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