Google's free internet "Sicko" is now gone.

[Elwood P Dowd]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10446826

Edit to add:

Movie company to get tough over Sicko YouTube leaks
Page 1 of 2 View as a single page 10:00AM Wednesday June 20, 2007


NEW YORK - YouTube has removed clips of Michael Moore's US health-care expose Sicko that appeared on the site during the weekend, two weeks before the film's June 29 opening.

A 124-minute version of Sicko was available on the Google Inc.-owned website, posted by at least two users in 14 consecutive video chunks.

The postings came on the heels of a fairly high-quality pirated version of the film that became available last week via BitTorrent file-sharing software and peer-to-peer websites. By early Monday, the clips had been pulled from YouTube because of copyright complaints by Lionsgate, which is distributing the film domestically for the Weinstein Co.

One version uploaded to YouTube during the weekend received 500-600 views per segment, with one of the first segments garnering nearly 1,700 views. Another version uploaded Saturday had 200-300 views per segment, with the first 10 minutes receiving more than 1,200 views.

The entire film also recently was uploaded, and then removed, from a site found on the Google Video search engine.

[RB TexLa]

1. Knew that was going to happen. Moore isn't the distributer doesn't matter that he

said he doesn't mind people downloading it.

[RoyGBiv]

2. Another reason I like Moore ...

"I think the music industry's response to Napster was misguided ... and for me, it's about getting people to see the movie and that's what I want, so they will talk about it," Moore recently told Brandweek magazine. "I would never want to prosecute anybody who would download (his film)."

[napi21]

3. I don't have any problem paying to see it, I just don't like theaters

so I guess I will have to wait for the DVD release. I'd like to see these movie companies give us the option of paying a fee to watch their movies online or go to a theater. They'd still make their money, people just wouldn't have to pay a fortune for popcorn and candy!