Piracy Puts Film Online One Month Before Open

According to The New YorkTimes, thousands of people watched a version of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” online Wednesday, a full month before its scheduled theater release.

The film’s distributor, 20th Century Fox, said it did not know how the unfinished copy of the comic book adaptation was leaked onto the Internet. The copy was missing many special effects and included temporary sound and music. Nonetheless, it circulated widely online beginning late Tuesday, even prompting some viewers to publish reviews, favorable and unfavorable, of the hotly anticipated film.

... Eric Garland, the chief executive of the file-sharing monitoring firm BigChampagne, called the widespread downloading of “Wolverine” a “one-of-a-kind case.” “We’ve never seen a high-profile film — a film of this budget, a tentpole movie with this box office potential — leak in any form this early,” he said.

Click here for 20th Century Fox statement and legal threats.

emily | 8:16 AM | Copypright Issues |
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