Any time Hollywood invites movie viewers to share a free movie, the situation could end up dicey for both sides.
Michael Moore had good intentions when he offered his latest movie, Slacker Uprising, free of charge on the Internet, but his initial plan has backfired.
Slacker Uprising was released last month for free to North American viewers, with a letter from Moore inviting them to share the video. Movie viewers listened, deciding to begin offering the film through peer-to-peer networks and torrent trackers across the country.
After signing up to download the movie, users are sent an e-mail with the following opening sentence:
"Thanks for signing up to download Slacker Uprising. It is available for free as a gift from me to all of you. And you have my permission to share it or show it in any way you see fit."
The film studio does not find offense to users sharing it through BitTorrent, but because of licensing issues, it's supposed to be a North American only offer. Sharing the film through torrents means international users now have access to the film.
A few different torrent web sites have received cease-and-desist letters from the company that owns Slacker Uprising's copyrights.
Any person or web site sharing the file for users outside of the United States or Canada is technically infringing on the movie studio's copyrights. Westside Productions owns the film's copyrights, and plans to continue issuing cease-and-desist letters to any file sharers caught uploading videos to foreign viewers.
More than two million U.S. and Canadian users visited the official Slacker Uprising web site during the film's first week of release.
