Marc Perkel

[Nil Einne]

I suppose it had to happen. Moore's claim that he did not mind people distributing his Farenheit 9/11 online has lead to Marc Perkel putting it on his website and paying $2000 for bandwidth to support the dls. I'm surprised he was able to get enough bandwidth for $2000 but regardless it's there: (I removed the URL since it might be in violation of the rules but it should be easy to find)

Marc admits he doesn't know anything about AV stuff and it appears he does need help. He says his original version is in the AVI format which isn't very informative. He points to Microsoft to download the codec but I'm not sure what codec he's talking about. People help him!

P.S. Please no politic discussion on the movie etc!

[Nil Einne]

As for the legal side of this...

It's been reported in the news Marc Perkel claims he is very legal savvy but this seems unlikely to me. Surely if he were, he would know that whatever Moore's opinion, it does not overide the rights of the copyright holder unfortunetely. And even if he is does try to sue Moore, it's unlikely to suceed IMHO since from what I've read, Moore has never claimed that he has the rights to authorise people to distribute his film online simply that he personally doesn't feel there is anything wrong. In fact, if he were so sure what he was doing was okay, why didn't he at least inform Moore of his plans? http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=576751
Also see the end of this: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storyprint.cfm?storyid=3604879

Having said that, I suspect what is going to happen is the copyright holder is going to send him a cease and desist order. To avoid too much controversy, they might wait until after the election. If he takes it down, that will probably be that last we'll hear of it. I doubt they'll sue him for illegal distributing even though they're likely to win. Unless of course he refuses to take it down which I personally doubt.

P.S. I repeat, please no political discussion of the movie