Bid to quash Moore's 'free' web movie

Celebrity documentary maker Michael Moore released his latest movie, Slacker Uprising, as a free download but lawyers are now trying to have it expunged from download websites to prevent people outside the US and Canada from obtaining it.

Lawyers representing Slacker Uprising's international rights holder have sent letters to download sites telling them to remove access to the movie, file-sharing news site TorrentFreak reported.

The move - so far unsuccessful - appears to contradict Moore's earlier comments saying the film was "done entirely as a gift to my fans" and to inspire people "to get off the couch and give voting a chance". Moore implored viewers to "email it, burn it and share it with anyone and everyone".

More recent comments made by Moore to TorrentFreak, which broke the story, suggest the initial error in distributing the film outside the US and Canada might have been a deliberate snub to the rights holder, which intends to sell the film in other countries.

Slacker Uprising, released late last month, is based around footage compiled by Moore during a tour of US colleges in battleground states in the lead-up to the 2004 US presidential election. It is a re-edited version of his 2007 film Captain Mike Across America and aims to encourage younger American voters to register to vote for this year's election.

Moore, a staunch liberal, has spent his career speaking out against right-wing US government policies including gun ownership laws, the war in Iraq, the privatised American health-care system and globalisation.

He is the director and producer of three of the five highest-grossing documentaries of all time: Bowling For Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11 and Sicko.

Moore chose the file sharing protocol BitTorrent, a popular tool for illegally sharing movies and music, to distribute Slacker Uprising.

People from outside the US and Canada who tried to obtain it from the official website, slackeruprising.com, were turned away but, because BitTorrent was used, the file could still be obtained by anyone in the world via various BitTorrent file-sharing websites such as PirateBay.org.

There has been speculation online that Moore released the film via BitTorrent deliberately as a way of attracting as many viewers as possible, regardless of the impact on the international copyright holder.

Responding to TorrentFreak, Moore said he owned only the US and Canadian rights so his hands were tied.

"But this is the 21st century. What are 'geographical rights'?" he said.

"I'll say it for the 100th time: if I buy a book and read it, and then give you the book to read, I have broken no laws. Why is that not true for all media?"

Following the release of both Sicko and Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore encouraged fans to download the films for free illegally.

"I'm not a big believer in our copyright laws. I think they're way too restrictive," he said last year.

- © Fairfax NZ News