Wolverine's Leaker Saddens Hugh

Staff Writer: Grave Digger

In his home country of Australia, Hugh Jackman expressed his sadness over the illegal leak of the Wolverine movie:"It's a serious crime and there's no doubt it's very disappointing - I was heartbroken by it."

"The FBI are onto it and they're taking it very very seriously," Jackman elaborated to reporters. "Rest assured that person will be found."

But will the leaker be caught? Who knows at this point. OHG has discovered a trend against certain online communities and has reported the discovery in the Silent Wave of Control.

As the industry can see, the sneak peak did not hurt movie sales:

TOTAL LIFETIME GROSSES

Domestic: $177,526,652 49.2% + Foreign: $183,247,800 50.8% = Worldwide: $360,774,452

For a movie with a $150 million budget, the studio has recouped it's money, at least. Money from DVD sales and rentals are yet to come.

So, again, OHG asks the question: does the online environment harm the profits of big business? With the example of Wolverine, it's definitely a "no."

Source: Gold Coast Mail and BoxOfficeMojo

Silent Wave of Control

Staff Writer: Grave Digger

Since Wolverine was leaked out onto the web, one person received the ax- well, claw, in the public forum. That is until lately.

In the back channels of the Internet, a silent wave of reprisals have been waged against free movie and television show providers. As a follow up to our: Wolverine Download Scandal, OHG investigates how big business rules our lives.

In recent years, conglomerates the world over have been asserting their rights via lobbyists, payoffs, and laws over us: the consumer. To push back against the attacks, a few surfers have used their programming talents for the people.

Rights, you say? Copyright, you espouse? Think how many times the Copyright Laws have changed in the last decade alone. Have the changes protected you or I? No. Think: Mickey Mouse. A cartoon character who should be in the public domain, but is not.

Download a movie or song from one of the "legal" providers. You'll soon discover you don't own the song like you once did. You now "lease" the property. Anything you do that does not conform to the law, could wind you up in jail.

Have you downloaded the movie or song to another computer? Have you tried to burn the item to cd or dvd? Have you tried to break free from the chains?

Then you've probably have broken the law.

Go ahead check the term of use or agreement on what you download. You'll see fast: you waste a lot of money on stuff you'll never own.

There are reasons people don't lease vehicles. We like a sense of ownership. It's our money. Let us own a part of our cultural hertiage.

Write your Congressperson and demand equal protection from the predatory corporate interests under the law! Perhpas it's not too late.

Sources: Rowling Copyright vs Fan Lexicon, Wolverine Download Scandal, and Digital Copy Ruse.

Wolverine Download Scandal

Staff Writer: Grave Digger

Enny, Meeny, Myni, mo catch a tiger by the toe- or download X-Men Origins: Wolverine onto your home computer. Forget about going to the dirty, expensive, pesticide-laden movie theater. Why not enjoy a film on the studio while wearing your sockies?

For one thing, Hollywood is not the recording industry. The music industry crams down derivitive, over-hyped, meglomaniacs down the throats of society and wonders why their sales are down. Get a clue. We're tired of over-sexed, crappy, untalented, and just plain stupid "artists." When we all know the music is contrived.

Like many people, I've shut out the radio. It's selling garbage. I've turned off music videos. It's almost-naked women grinding next to some ugly guy. No one cares if you can rhyme. Anyone can do that anytime. So sit back and relax. We've got this covered with symantics. Watch:

Give listeners real artists and we will come back to buying albums. It's simple. It's not a downloading issue. It's a quality issue.

Think I'm wrong? Countless people downloaded Wolverine. Let's just put that fact out there. You can scream copyright all you want. Yet, the movie has made over $150 million and we aren't even to DVD sales and rentals. Hugh Jackman has another few weeks to catapult Wolverine into Dark Knight territory. And he might get close- adjusting for a recession, of course.

Another funny thing is that the only one fired was a reporter from Fix, I mean, Fox News. A reporter who investigated the downloading issue and conspiracy theory was the one who got the ax. So it's true, Fox News doesn't understand that their network needs to investigate and report the news instead of only repeating conservative talking points. Boring.

Everybody knows the download was for 20th Century Fox to receive some attention. For unknown reasons, the film studio cannot get enough good press on its own sister station. Therefore, the executives came to the web. Do we see a double-standard? Use and abuse the geeks when it serves the industry the best?

So what's the harm then with the underground? The industries will say copyright, money, blah, blah, blah. What the industries don't want to realize is that the underground has been going on since the dawn of commerce and actually creates a buying niche. How many times has someone got you to listen to music or see a movie and you loved it? A consumer is born. Then industries walk in with their lawyers and lobbyists on capitol hill and point fingers at the "criminals." You're the jerks. You change copyright laws every other year until no one understands the laws anymore and end up criminalizing your own customers!

So that's the jist. A provider can do one of two things: make it so hard on customers that you lose them forever or let a little slide for a bigger profit margin in the end.

I'm sure the web has perpetuated the underground movement, but it's also increased viability for industries. Artists that would never get a recording contract or movie deal all of a sudden do because of the viral nature of the web.

Cracking down or crying boo hoo isn't going to stop the signal. It'll just drive the trade further underground where institutions cannot find the sources. At least in the open, industries have some control over what is available for download. The question is: will the industries add more quality so their audience will return to, let's say, buying music like people flocked to Wolverine?

It's your choice, but if you want customers, then give us something we want to buy and downloading, as you will see, has never been the issue.

Wolverine Movie Review

Staff Writer: Samuntha Mackenzie

4 1/2 out of 5 Shovels
With all the excitement about X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and its subsequent upload to the Internet, a movie like this one is usually adequate. Wolverine was better then anticipated. Though well thought out and executed, the last quarter of the movie lagged.

The film itself showed the metamorphose of James Logan, aka Wolverine from sickly child in 1845 to the eternal solider and then to a content lover. Logan began to loathe war and blood whereas his brother reveled in it. Teamed up with other mutants, the brothers were invincible.

Yet Wolverine did not like what his brother turned into: an immoral killing machine. He left the team and his brother behind. What he found as a logger was peace. What he found in love was solace.

But his former commander had other plans. Stryker baited and hooked Wolverine into a vicious game.

Now non-comic book readers understand Logan, his amnesia, and his skeptic's heart.

What was not conveyed was Gambit. Non-comic book readers will scratch their heads. What was his power? How did it work?

A couple loose ends tied up. A few left in the wind. Perhaps the next installment (Magneto) will give fans a little more.