Michael Moore’s Slacker Uprising Available for Download Now

Posted by mike

September 23, 2008

Today is the day, as promised, that Slacker Uprising (Michael Moore’s newest film) would be available online for free. You can download the film (legally) for free if you’re a resident of the U.S. or Canada from slackeruprising.com.

Slacker Uprising, and its new distribution model, may create a lot of havoc for an insecure industry. Depending on how this goes and how the demand is created for other films, we may see some studios look towards monetizing an online delivery model like this (a la Hulu). In fact, Blip.TV’s (Blip being the company that’s hosting the video) CEO Mike Hudack had some thoughts on the release:

“It is a watershed moment that a film by a major American filmmaker is being put in wide release on the Web - not in theaters, not on television, and not on DVD. The Web is quickly becoming a legitimate means of distribution, and it no longer plays second fiddle to theatres and television. Web-based distribution puts artists in control and prevents any single studio or network boss from giving thumbs up or down to particular productions. Now the market can decide.”

I don’t know if we’ll see this go completely mainstream or even make an effect at all to the industry. I do know, however, that I’d like to see some things completely overhauled. I don’t think our distribution model follows technological innovations so far and I think there’s a lot of room to grow and allow more freedom for consumers. And honestly, I think as they move closer to those freedoms you’ll see a lot of piracy problems cease to exist. But that’s for another post.

Don’t forget to download the movie and be a part of this movie first. Once watched, you can hop on over to IHM and rate the film. The trailer is posted below for a reminder of what the film is about.