The “was he or wasn’t he?” game ended Monday – Fox News said that it has fired Roger Friedman, While the brief statement from Fox (see below) made no mention of the reason, it’s clear to most that it was due to Friedman’s downloading an illegal copy and posting a review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine last Thursday.
Fox’s statement reads: "Fox News representatives and Roger Friedman met today and mutually agreed to part ways immediately. Fox News appreciates Mr. Friedman's 10 years of contributions to building FoxNews.com and wishes him success in his future endeavors. Mr. Friedman is grateful to his colleagues for their friendship and support over the past decade."
The review was pulled down shortly after a firestorm about it erupted, and unconfirmed reports that Friedman had been fired circulated all weekend, with Friedman himself telling some news outlets that he had not been fired.
While 20th Century Fox has said that it will make sure those who uploaded and have hosted the film on their sites will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, it’s unclear what the Studio will do, legally, to a former Fox News employee who tacitly admitted to downloading a copy of the film from a hosting site.
Meanwhile, TorrentFreak.com is reporting that X-Men Origins: Wolverine has been downloaded over one million times as of Monday.