If you happen to already be of the opinion that Michael Moore is not the lovable man of the people he appears to be, then this news probably won't be changing your feelings about him anytime soon. One month after Moore offered up free downloads of his latest documentary, Slacker Uprising, Torrent Freak reports that "In a letter dated September 25th, lawyers representing Westside Productions LLC, owner of the Slacker Uprising copyright sprang into action, demanding the removal of a torrent linking to the movie from any and all international sites."

Moore's latest was compiled of footage from his recent college tour -- a tour in which he traveled to colleges in the so-called 'swing states' to speak to students in an attempt to energize young voters. The film is a re-edited version of Moore's 2007 doc, Captain Mike Across America, which screened at TIFF in '07 to lukewarm reviews. Moore initially said the reason behind the free download was both a reward to fans who have supported him over the years, as well as a way to get out his message prior to the upcoming presidential election.

The download was offered only to those living in the US and Canada, but it didn't take long for the film to start popping up on numerous torrent sites outside of North America. Moore's lawyers inexplicably sent their letter to the DNS service (easyDNS) of one of the international sites pirating the flick, which is not required to comply with US law. A co-founder of easyDNS responded to Moore's lawyers with the following: "...Anybody with half a clue knows the net doesn't work like that. In any case, I've sent them our standard 'we're not the web host, we're just the lowly DNS service', but I did point out this seeming contradiction in Michael Moore's message vs. his lawyer's actions."

So while Moore may have every right to control how his film is distributed, maybe someone should have explained that old saying about the internet and pee in a pool.

The movie studios sued Valence Media in February claiming that the company's TorrentSpy website aids in the pirating of movies online. As it goes with any file-sharing network or service, TorrentSpy isn't so much accused of encouraging or permitting pirates but of helping them by way of turning a blind eye. Valence tried to dismiss the suit in March, but the motion was denied. However, Hollywood might be satisfied if TorrentSpy simply ceased indexing pirated files and barred individuals who are guilty of regularly sharing illegal materials.

Well, now Valence Media has launched a counter-attack. The company sued the MPAA on Wednesday for hiring a hacker to obtain information from Valence's computers. The hacker, who is claimed to have been paid $15,000, broke in and collected a large amount of evidence to use against Valence in the original suit (it is unclear from the AP story if the hack was done before or after the original suit was filed). The MPAA is denying the accusations and the hacker has not been identified in the lawsuit, but it was stated that the Hollywood trade group only guaranteed the payment if the information they received was useful.

My guess is that the hacker was not actually paid and so he anonymously ratted the MPAA out to Valence. Whatever the specifics, though, one thing is obvious: The MPAA is a very hypocritical organization if the allegations are true. Can we please just get rid of Dan Glickman and the rest of them? They should be paying more attention to the quality of their industry's product these days than spending so much money on the fight against piracy. I don't mean that I support the criminals, really, but it has to be clear to Glickman now that for every pirate or piracy aid they put away or shut down, new ones pop up in their place. I'm sure there must be more important issues that Hollywood should be concerned with these days.

Sure, Hollywood is doing cartwheels trying to stop piracy of movies, shutting down certain internet sites and fining those who help piracy live on, but you can still download movies legally, and for free! That is, movies that are now in the public domain and freely available to redistribute. Public Domain Torrents has some pretty cool titles, such as Metropolis and Night of the Living Dead, while you can also choose to visit the Internet Archive: Feature Films site to browse a few more, like Nosferatu and Dressed To Kill. Not too shabby at all.

[via Lifehacker]