Copyright Law

FBI Investigates ?Wolverine? BitTorrent Leak

By soulxtc

Follows 20th Century Fox’s warning that the workprint contained watermarks enabling it to find the source and prosecute those responsible.

Ever since I reported last week about how a workprint copy of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” leaked to BitTorrent the FBI and 20th Century Fox have been working overtime to find the source of the leak and prosecute whomever is responsible.

20th Century Fox had the following statement:

Last night, a stolen, incomplete and early version of X-Men Origins: Wolverine was posted illegally on websites. It was without many effects and had missing scenes and temporary sound and music. We immediately contacted the appropriate legal authorities and had it removed. We forensically mark our content so we can identify sources that make it available or download it. The source of the initial leak and any subsequent postings will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law — the courts have handed down significant criminal sentences for such acts. The FBI and MPAA are also actively investigating the crime. We are encouraged by the support of fansites condemning piracy and this illegal posting and pointing out that such theft undermines the enormous efforts of the filmmakers and actors and, above all, hurts fans of the film.

20th Century Fox even managed to have longtime Fox News entertainment blogger Roger Friedman fired for allegedly downloading and then posting a review of the pirated film.

“Roger Friedman’s views in no way reflect the views of News Corp,” it said in a statement. “We, along with 20th Century Fox Film Corp, have been a consistent leader in the fight against piracy and have zero tolerance for any action that encourages and promotes piracy. When we advised Fox News of the facts they took immediate action, removed the post, and promptly terminated Mr. Friedman.”

This was despite the fact that he wrote a positive review of the film.

He wrote:

I doubt anyone else has seen this film. But everyone can relax. I am, in fact, amazed about how great Wolverine turned out. It exceeds expectations at every turn … It?s miles easier to understand than The Dark Knight, and tremendously more emotional … A couple of times it was possible to see the harnesses on the actors. It didn?t take away from the film at all.

Because of watermarks the studio said it would be able to determine the source of the leak, though it did not immediately disclose it, saying: “The FBI and the MPAA also are actively investigating this crime. We are encouraged by the support of fansites condemning this illegal posting.”

The watermarks are apparently from Rising Sun Pictures (RSP), an Australian special effects studio working on parts of the film, but RSP Chairman and co-founder Tony Clark says there’s no way his company can be the source of the leak.

“From the reports we’ve had, the stolen material is a work in progress version of the film with many incomplete sections,” he says on the RSP website. “As we worked on individual sequences within the film, neither RSP or its staff members have ever been in possession of a full-length version, so it would have been impossible for the movie to have been leaked from here. It’s common practice for work in progress between us and the production to carry vendor watermarks and for these works in progress to be integrated into various edits of the film for screenings which would explain why our name appears.”

Stay tuned.

EDIT UPDATE: Apparently when researching the story I included news that the FBI had made arrests in connection with the case. It now appears the information was erroneous and the post has been updated accordingly……Jared

Full post as published by ZeroPaid on April 06, 2009 (boomark / email).