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EXCLUSIVE: Fox News Fires Showbiz Columnist For “Promoting” Piracy

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Saturday April 4, 2009 @ 5:57pm PDTTags: Big Media, Movies, Piracy

Updates FBI Joins Fox In Hunt For Stolen ‘Wolverine’ Pirated On Web

SUNDAY UPDATE: News Corp issued the following statement from Los Angeles today confirming my reporting from Saturday — “Roger Friedman’s views in no way reflect the views of News Corporation. We, along with 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, 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.”

SATURDAY PM EXCLUSIVE: News Corp like all major Hollywood studios takes the crime of piracy very seriously. Nor will the Fox parent company tolerate it if its employees don’t. Especially after a stolen, early and unfinished work print of 20th Century Fox’s big summer blockbuster X-Men Origins: Wolverine was put onto the Internet illegally this week in a major scandal that the FBI is now investigating. So there was universal shock on Friday when long-time “Fox 411″ freelance columnist Roger Friedman wrote what I’m told his bosses felt was a blatant promotion of piracy on his Fox News web outlet. Besides writing a review from watching the purloined print of Wolverine, Friedman posted, “I did find the whole top 10 [movies in theaters], plus TV shows, commercials, videos, everything, all streaming away. It took really less than seconds to start playing it all right onto my computer. I could have downloaded all of it but really, who has the time or the room? Later tonight I may finally catch up with Paul Rudd in I Love You, Man. It’s so much easier than going out in the rain!” I’m told that Fox News’ actions were swift and severe. First, Roger Ailes, who oversees Fox News, deleted the offending post after he was contacted by 20th Century Fox about it. And then Ailes 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.”

Friedman has written his gossip column, “Fox 411″, for FoxNews.com for more than a decade and peppers it with celebrity items, industry news, and off-the-cuff movie reviews. He has long been a controversial writer who quite frequently angers the publicity machine surrounding actors, directors, producers, studios, celebrities, movies and TV. Occasionally he has scoops, especially about the music biz. Still, how could he not have known that his writings Friday would hit a nerve with his employers. After Friedman’s column on FoxNews.com appeared, both News Corp and Fox condemned it as “promoting a pirated version of Wolverine“.

News Corp issued this statement: “Roger Friedman’s views in no way reflect the views of News Corporation. We, along with 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, have been a consistent leader in the fight against piracy and have zero tolerance for any action that encourages and promotes piracy. Once we learned of Roger Friedman’s post we asked Fox News to remove it, which they did immediately.”

And Fox said, “We’ve just been made aware that Roger Friedman, a freelance columnist who writes Fox 411 on Foxnews.com – an entirely separate company from 20th Century Fox — watched on the internet and reviewed a stolen and unfinished version of X-Men Orgins: Wolverine. This behavior is reprehensible and we condemn this act categorically — whether the review is good or bad.”

UPDATE: I did reach Friedman for comment. He emailed back only that he was at the Paul McCartney concert.

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UPDATED PIRACY SCANDAL: FBI Joins Fox In Hunt For “Stolen, Incomplete & Early Version’ ‘Wolverine’ Print On Web

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Thursday April 2, 2009 @ 10:45am PDTTags: Piracy

THURSDAY AM UPDATE: Estimates now are that the Hugh Jackman film, the 4th in the X-Men franchise for 20th Century Fox, was downloaded hundreds of thousands of times from file sharing websites on Tuesday. This is a huge blow to the studio’s major … Read More »

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Trio Accused Of Best Picture Oscar Piracy

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Saturday February 21, 2009 @ 11:42am PSTTags: Oscars, Piracy

News reports say three Southern California men were charged with illegally posting on the Internet pirated copies of Hollywood movies, including Oscar nominees Fox Searchlight’s Slumdog Millionaire and Paramount’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The trio were charged in separate cases and face a maximum 3 years in prison … Read More »

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MPAA Sues To Shut Down 3 Film Websites

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Wednesday December 17, 2008 @ 10:47pm PSTTags: Law, Piracy

Los Angeles – The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) on behalf of the major Hollywood movie studios filed lawsuits in federal court in Los Angeles today against campusist.com, movies-on-demand.tv, and sswarez.com – websites that facilitate copyright infringement on the Internet. These sites contribute to and profit from massive

… Read More »

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Studios Always Find Money For Lawyers: Majors Sue To Stop RealDVD Software

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Tuesday September 30, 2008 @ 12:08pm PDTTags: Law, Piracy, Studios

The Motion Picture Association Of America just released this press statement:

Los Angeles – The nation’s top movie companies filed a lawsuit today asking a federal court to stop RealNetworks Inc. from distributing the company’s RealDVD software which allows movies to be copied illegally.  In their complaint and motion for

… Read More »

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Uni Employee Screening Program Pirated: But Is That Why It’s Shut Down Now…?

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Tuesday August 5, 2008 @ 9:16am PDTTags: Movies, Piracy, Studios

UPDATED: A Universal hotline confirms that the studio has cancelled all non-executive employee screenings, saying the popular program’s shutdown continues through July and August until further notice. But there’s some contention about why this occurred. ”Because some dumb fuck pirated Wanted at … Read More »

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Uni’s Internal Update On Backlot Fire

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Thursday June 19, 2008 @ 7:24pm PDTTags: Agents, Disasters, Hollywood, Piracy, Sopranos, Studios, Theme Parks, Vegas

From: Ron Meyer (NBC Universal)
Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2008 2:57 PM
To: NBC Universal Employee Communications (NBC Universal)
Subject: Universal Studios Backlot Fire UpdateDear Co-Worker,
 
It has already been a few weeks since our June 1 fire that turned into an

… Read More »

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Eli Roth Reacts Badly To Hostel II Failure; Says R-Rated Horror In Serious Jeopardy

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Sunday June 17, 2007 @ 9:09am PDTTags: Box Office, Directors, Horror, Movies, Piracy, Studios, Summer Movies

elianimation.gifWriting (more like whining) on his My Space page, Hostel Part II creator / director Eli Roth tells fans he’s going to take a break of about a year from filmmaking, blames piracy and critics for the lousy box … Read More »

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Pirated: ‘Hostel II’ Bootlegs & Downloads

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Thursday May 31, 2007 @ 5:12pm PDTTags: DVDs, Horror, Internet, Movies, Piracy, Studios, Summer Movies

elianimation.gifI wish this were being done out of hostility to Hostel II but it’s because of the popularity of the Lionsgate horror franchise. First, bootlegs turned up on Los Angeles street corners. Now stellar workprints of the torture porn pic, albeit … Read More »

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Sony Denies ‘Spider-Man 3′ Was Pirated

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Tuesday April 24, 2007 @ 2:21pm PDTTags: DVDs, Media, Movies, Piracy, Studios, Summer Movies

spiderman3tokyo.jpgUPDATE: The folks at Sony Pictures almost had a collective coronary today. The studio is denying a Reuters report out of Beijing that pirated DVDs of Spider-Man 3 are already showing up in China. ”My understanding is they … Read More »

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