As stunning as it is, the studio has made the right call regarding gossip columnist Roger Friedman’s decision to publicly admit to downloading the recently leaked copy of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and, worse, review the film in his Fox 411 column.
Nikki Finke has the scoop:
I’m told that Fox News’ actions were swift and severe. Roger Ailes, who overseas Fox News, deleted the offending post after he was contacted by 20th Century Fox, and then fired Friedman as a freelance Fox News entertainment writer. I hear the move was done with the full support of News Corp. “He promoted piracy. He basically suggested that viewing a stolen film is OK, which is absolutely intolerable. So we fired him,” a source told me Saturday. “Fox News acted promptly on all fronts.”
Let’s hope the source holds water. Finke has come under considerable online peer scrutiny over the past two weeks.
Read more about the commotion here.
Comments
13 responses to “Fox shows Friedman the door after ‘Wolverine’ review”
Kris, does this mean you never ever downloaded a pirated copy of a movie / show ?
It does. I have a full log of iTunes purchases to back it up. I don’t have the patience to seek out illegal copies (I’ve certainly poked around). Legit is so much smoother. Sue me.
Kris simply isn’t the bad boy we all want him to be.
I’ve never done so either. I don’t think people like us are that unusual.
Entertainment is a service. As such, I don’t mind paying for it. Call that a soapbox stance if you will, but I’m an old-fashioned guy.
I think illegally downloading in the music industry has been good for the consumer. It gave the consumer more choice.
It made record companies change from their previous high profit business models.
Of course, the record companies were stubborn and refused to embrace this new revenue stream at first.
Whilst I don’t agree with leaking or downloading a workprint before a film comes out, I won’t have a go at anyone who wants to download movies illegally once they are released.
If you don’t want to go to the cinema, the only options you have are to wait 3 months and buy the DVD (which will be re-released in a year with more extras that could have been on the first release – Kerching!) or download it illegally.
It’s a tricky area for the studios but illegally downloading movies isn’t getting an smaller, probably just bigger. I think they need to make some sort of effort to embrace it in a bigger way.
Anyway, journalist/bloggers get to see films for free at press screenings before they come out.
Those are extraordinarily weak arguments, Adam. I think one way to ensure that these big event movies you love so much will stop being made is to continue to download them illegally. If everybody’s seen the movie for free, then no one will pay to see them, they will become box-office failures, and no one will bankroll them again. While I personally would love to see such movies die off, I DON’T want the film industry to sink as a whole.
You’re missing my point.
People don’t even have the option to download and pay to watch a movie legally.
Even if were people were willing (and I think lots of people are – I would) to pay for a new release, they can’t.
Is there a reason you’re unable to pay to go to the cinema, Adam?
If it’s a distribution issue — as in, you live somewhere that doesn’t receive specialist/foreign releases — I suppose I can see your point to an extent.
But if we’re talking about mainstream releases playing in theatres anywhere, I don’t get what the issue is.
I pay to go the cinema, just as I pay for DVDs and as I pay for my Movies package on Sky.
I was also more than happy to pay the IMAX premium and pay for a train ticket upto London to see TDK in IMAX.
I would also happily pay to download a new cinema release.
There is no issue about paying.
I have no issue paying for a movie with good word of mouth/advanced reviews, or a film I’m just extremely interested in seeing. But hey, if Fast & Furious is online, I’ll give it a watch while I’m surfing the net. No way I’d actually pay $10 to see that scrod, like so many unfortunate souls did this weekend. If that makes me an ass or a “contributor to the implosion of the American film industry” then I guess that’s what I am.
Good to hear. I wasn’t sure Fox was actually gonna do the right thing.
And for the record, I’ve never illegally downloaded a film.
What was Roger Friedman thinking? That twerp got what was coming to him if you ask me. I don’t care what your stance is on downloading movies, if you are a freelance writer for a blog that is owned by a conglomerate that also owns a movie studio as huge as Fox, why the hell would you admit to watching an illegal download of a movie they produced? If it was really that important to him to give his opinion of the film he should have just responded with an anonymous user name on AICN or the imdb message board about what he thought of the movie to all the other fanboys who downloaded the film. But why bite the hand that feeds in such a stupid way?
I have downloaded movies over the internet, I accept it. But also I’m a movie lover, and preferred to watch movies on a proper cinema. more so when the movie deserve it. I don’t think beta copy of a movie deserved to be downloaded, or better yet, reviewed. that is like reviewing a meatloaf when is still RAW. For me, that is the crime here. Also, and most of the people that download movies know, most movies that are pirated right away from the release day are utter garbage in quality and worthless to be watched.