Michael Moore's controversial documentary about the U.S. health care industry, Sicko, has already been stolen and made available on the internet. Advertising Age's Claude Brodesser-Akner downloaded a copy from a p2p site Thursday night and watched it.

Availability on the web so far ahead of its release in theaters is disturbing and should provide some illumination on how much such theft affects box office. Brodesser-Akner, btw, doesn't tell us whether the movie is any good or not.

Update: Peter Sciretta at /film saw it online before Claude, and blogged about it in the wee small hours of Thursday morning.

He also thinks the film is one of the year's best so far.

Spanish cinemas have gone on strike.

For a day, anyway. Variety reports on plans for a Monday closure of Spanish movie theaters to protest the government's new draft film law. The somewhat hard-pressed exhibition sector is upset that some long-standing concerns are either being ignored or implemented in ways they see as detrimental to the health of the industry:

Spanish exhibitors are riled at being ignored in the new draft law, which makes no mention of many of their demands: tougher anti-piracy measures, a reduction in U.S. major studios rentals in Spain, and the creation of legally enforceable six month windows between a film's theatrical bow and its release on other platforms.

The film bill, which is expected to be fast-tracked through parliament, does maintain an exhibition screen quota, which forces most hard tops to dedicate one of every four screenings to Spanish or non-Spanish European films.

Does anybody remember 2005?

That was the year of the summer slump that would not end - a slump that convinced many a pundit that the movie theatre business as we know it was dead. DVDs, flat screen TVs and instant downloading were killing the business, so theatres should acknowledge reality, turn off the popcorn makers, shut the doors and give consumers what they want.

Well, guess what? Now it's the DVD business that's down. After a flat 2006, 2007 is down 8% at the end of the first quarter - and why? The same reason that was dismissed when theatre owners made the case in 2005. There weren't enough movies that people wanted to see.