Okay. This is a bad story. The movie companies think that "protecting" their movie is so important that they have to use a phishing strategy against their own potential customers. This is wrong for many reasons.

1. Phishing is illegal -- In computing, phishing is a criminal activity using social engineering techniques. Phishers attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. [wiki]

They are committing fraud against their audience on the internet. Anyone who got phished by these movie assholes has more than grounds to sue their pants off. It's clearly entrapment.

2. If you don't want your movie to get out, don't make screeners. I'm not sure if Harvey is aware, but the copy that is loose on the net is not a cam. It was not recorded inside a theater by some ner-do-well with a video camera. You released the movie when you provided pre-release copies to reviewers.

3. There are more reasons people pirate than not to pay the 8 dollars. Lots of people can't make it out to the theaters because of medical conditions or their busy schedules. This is the modern world of Tivo. Life does start and stop at your convenience. If the movie studios understood this, they would do what Mark Cuban's movie company does and make the most of their advertising dollar by releasing the DVD, Internet Download and the Theatrical Release on the same day. Go to where your customers are and sell to them. Or don't show up where they are and let someone else provide what they want for free. It's up to you.

4. Creating "phony sites" and "flooding the zone" does not remove the initial copies of the film that are on the internet already at well established torrent sites. Anyone who is looking for this movie and knows what they are doing will not search google and get trapped in one of your illegal phishing operations. They will go to their usual torrent search engine and begin downloading the movie. Your solution does not solve the problem. Security by obscurity is NOT security.

5. If the movie is good, pre-release will only generate buzz and free advertising for your movie. This will increase your box office by broadening the audience. The reason movies like Factory Girl failed is because Factory Girl is a bad movie. Everyone who saw it on pre-release told their friends and that shrunk your audience. The only solution is to make better movies (and not to release any pre-release copies to reviewers or anyone else).

Sicko will be a huge hit despite these assholes trying to phish and imprison their own audience for being interested in their film. It used to be movie studios wanted to try to get your email address so their could advertise directly to you. Now they're trying to get you interested in their film so they can trick you into giving over your personal information, which they then give to the cops. Who will be left to watch your movies once you've sued and imprisoned all of your potential customers? Does this kind of business management make sense to anyone?

HARVEY Weinstein tried to take the bull by the horns when "SiCKO," Michael Moore's documentary on the health care system, leaked onto the Internet, allowing people to illegally download and view it for free instead of waiting to pay $8 when the flick hits theaters June 29.

"I hired Kroll Securities, and we started flooding the zone," Weinstein crowed to us. "We created lots of phony sites, and people had to input their private information to gain access to 'SiCKO.' We are turning over all the information to the police and prosecutors and are stopping Internet piracy."

Weinstein is right to be taking the piracy threat seriously. His company's latest high-profile flicks, "Grindhouse," "Factory Girl" and "Miss Potter," all bombed at the box office, and he needs "SiCKO" to be a hit.

--Page Six

hat tip: celebitchy and the blemish for alerting me to this important story.

Michael Moore also disagrees with what the Weinsteins are doing:

He just wants more people to see his movie. And if it happens through non-commercial piracy, he's fine with that. He wants his message to get out to more people so that it can inspire change in our corrupt medical system. He brings up the incredibly valid point that if you had purchased the DVD and loaned it to your friend to watch, would that be a crime? Why not? He's watching it for free. He didn't pay any money for it.

Sharing is an essential part of being human. It's how we exchange ideas. Trying to make sharing illegal is trying to make the ability to exchange ideas illegal. It's just plain wrong. It limits our culture. It limits our ability to learn new things and build on the knowledge of others.