The Sicko outbreak has been neutralized.

YouTube has taken down links to bootlegged copies of Michael Moore's exposé on the healthcare industry after being alerted by the film's distributors, Lionsgate and the Weinstein Company.

The full movie, which clocks in at 124 minutes and isn't scheduled to hit theaters nationwide until June 29, surfaced over the weekend on the video-sharing site in 14 chunks, each of which had drawn several hundred viewers before YouTube pulled the plug.

A pirated copy of Sicko apparently was first posted on BitTorrent and then quickly disseminated to other file-sharing networks before landing on YouTube.

There was no word from filmmakers on how the leaked copy made its way online, but the Weinstein Company did issue a statement saying it would move "aggressively to protect" Sicko from video pirates to ensure viewers would see the film in theaters.

"From our research it is clear that people interested in the [healthcare] movement are excited to go to the theater so they can be part of the experience and fight to reform health care," said studio spokeswoman Sarah Rothman.

Studio co-chief Harvey Weinstein refused to address the piracy issue, but did announce that Sicko would open this Friday in one New York theater due to "the tremendous word of mouth."

According to reports, the Weinstein Company has hired a technology firm to unleash fake downloads to discourage people from illicitly distributing the documentary.

Moore, on the other hand, doesn't seem so perturbed, having previously told the press that bootlegs give Sicko an extra publicity push.

"I don't agree with the copyright laws and I don't have a problem with people downloading the movie and sharing it with people as long as they're not trying to make a profit off my labor," he said.

Pirated versions of the firebrand filmmaker's 2004 release, Fahrenheit 9/11, also hit the Web before its release, but it didn't seem to hurt the bottom line. The documentary ended up tallying $119 million in North America alone to become the biggest-grossing documentary of all time.

Moore has been barnstorming the country to screen the film. At each stop, he's taken time to bash the healthcare industry as well as the federal government, which he claims is unfairly targeting him as retaliation for the administration-trashing Fahrenheit 9/11. The Treasury Department is investigating whether Moore violated U.S. laws by traveling to Cuba to film a scene for Sicko. (The 53-year-old Oscar winner says he has stashed a duplicate master of Sicko in Canada to prevent U.S. authorities from trying to confiscate the film.)

The next sneak peek will be held Wednesday in Washington, D.C. Moore has invited all the 2008 presidential contenders and several other politicians from both sides of the aisle to attend.

Meanwhile, Moore has also countered an attack from Manufacturing Dissent filmmakers Rick Caine and Debbie Melnyk, Their documentary, released in March, supposedly unearths several lies in Moore's 1989 debut, Roger & Me. Chief among the untruths, per the Caine and Melnyk, is that Moore actually did meet with the shadowy subject of Roger & Me, former General Motors CEO Roger Smith. The basis of Roger & Me is that Moore cannot get Smith to talk to him.

"Anybody who says that that is a f---in liar," Moore told the Associated Press Saturday following a screening of Sicko in Bellaire, Michigan.  "If I'd gotten an interview with him, why wouldn't I put it in the film? Any exchange with Roger Smith would have been valuable."

Moore contends that the encounter he had with Smith referenced by Caine and Melnyk came before Roger & Me was shot and wasn't germane to the film.

"I'm so used to listening to the stuff people say about me, it just becomes entertainment for me at this point," he said. "It's a fictional character that's been created with the name of Michael Moore."