James Delahunty
16 Jun 2007 17:12
We rarely report about early movie leaks on the Internet unless there is some significance to it other than piracy. Examples would be the outrage when Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith leaked early and was a main reason for "Operation D-Elite".
Another example is how rampant piracy of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 caused news outlets to report about a video of Moore explaining he is happy that his movies, books and TV shows are shared as long as its not for profit, and does not really agree with copyright laws.
However, Fahrenheit 9/11 was being shared heavily on the Internet "after" its theatrical release. This time around, a copy of Moore's highly-anticipated "Sicko" movie is being snatched up by thousands of pirates well ahead of its June 29th release date. What makes this interesting is how Moore's personal views on file sharing and copyright applies to such an early leak.
Of course, this could be exactly what Sicko needs and might not even be accidental. If you have been following the news, you know that the U.S. Government is investigating a trip Moore took to Cuba with workers from the World Trade Center site so they could receive health care they could not get at home. There was speculation that Sicko could have been "impounded" by the federal government due to the Cuba issue - so much so that Moore found it a necessity to stash a copy of the movie in Canada.
Sicko takes a critical look at the U.S. health care system. Moore has been praised by critics (achieving a several-minute-long standing ovation at Cannes), many of whom disliked the political bias in Moore's earlier work.