Back in the day, pirates could be turned into agents of colonial powers willing to employ them as privateers, thus going from being threats to assets. Now, with word of pirates on BitTorrent helping to promote a film, the question arises: Can marketing departments at big companies turn digital pirates into digital privateers?
Who’s to say it hasn’t already occurred? They never did announce publicly who leaked that print of X MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE online, and in terms of getting publicity for the film going it was certainly more cost-effective than all the media tours and press kits they could package, and according to one account at the time the leaked copy didn’t keep that many people from going to the theater to see it.
Not naming names or pointing fingers here, just a speculation in general…
