Monday 22 September 2008

Download a free film, but not in Oz

At midnight tomorrow, US time, my namesake Michael Moore is allowing people to legally download his new feature-length film, for free.

"I'm giving it to you as a gift of thanks for coming to my films over the 20 years I've been a filmmaker," he says. Moore wants to mobilise the country to vote in their upcoming elections on November 4th.

"That's why I'm giving you my blanket permission to not only download it, but also to email it, burn it, and share it with anyone and everyone," he said today. However us Aussies and Kiwis, won't be able to, as it's only available to the US and Canada.

Slacker Uprising chronicles a 62-city tour Moore did leading up to the 2004 election. "This is my concert film tribute to the young voters who are going to save this country from four more years of Republican rule," he says.

Throughout the tour he famously gave out instant noodles, as he felt these 'slackers' were sitting in front of their TVs and ordering pizza. A Senator wanted to file legal charges against Moore for bribery. Although his efforts didn't keep Bush out of the White House, he did have an impact of promoting the largest turnout of young voters ever at the polls.

Beyond the US shores, we can by a DVD version for around 21 Aussie bucks, delivered. I might wait a week or two until someone dumps it up on Pirate Bay.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mike, probably not the 'smartest move' to admit that you download non free media be they movies or otherwise in a public forum mate (re comment concerning Pirate Bay).

As we have the free trade agreement with the USA, their DCMA act more than likely covers us as well, so you have possibly just admitted to piracy?

Not trying to stir the pot, just trying to make you aware...

Regards,


Andrew.

Michael P Moore said...

Andrew, I didn't. Please sit up and pay attention.

Anonymous said...

@Michael P Moore said:
"I might wait a week or two until someone dumps it up on Pirate Bay."

Mate, with 10 years plus of Corporate and Government IT experience doing everything from Level 1 help desk to statewide network administration I don't get much wrong in this line.

The way our illustrious (and I use the term very loosely and sarcastically) State and Federal Governments work, your quoted passage above is enough to show intent that you are considering downloading it.

The fact that you know of Pirate Bay (you even provided a link to it as well) and it would be safe to assume that you know what type of material that you can peruse or download there; I would argue that it's like saying "men buy Playboy for the articles" :)

I mean, you said yourself (and I quote again):

"I might wait a week or two until someone dumps it up on Pirate Bay."

What are you 'waiting a week or two' for if you aren't going to download it? You've already admitted that you now (and quote again): "Beyond the US shores, we can by a DVD version for around 21 Aussie bucks, delivered."

Again, I'm not stirring the pot, just trying to help.

Michael P Moore said...

Pirate Bay, and the mryid of other sites that offer movies, TV programmes, docos etc, are well-known (Alluc.org is a good one!) However I was referring specificially to this new movie that the publisher said "I'm giving you my blanket permission to not only download it, but also to email it, burn it, and share it with anyone and everyone."