Huge Hollywood mistake in student download stats
p2pnet news | MPAA News:- “In Hollywood, lies and hype rule and now the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) has again been show up for using inaccurate statistics to support its claim that its owners, the multi-billion-dollar Big Six movie studios, are being ruined by file sharers,” p2pnet posted in 2006.
We were talking about a study by something called LEK which was dismissed by Britain’s Industry Trust for Intellectual Property Awareness (ITfIPA) as “inaccurate and out of date”.
The MPAA was contacted, “but declined to reply,”
The same study has again been shown up to be completely wrong, and this time Hollywood’s MPAA has been forced to admit it.
“The MPAA has used the study to pressure colleges to take tougher steps to prevent illegal file-sharing and to back legislation currently before the House of Representatives that would force them to do so,” says Associated Press, going on:
“But now the MPAA, which represents the U.S. motion picture industry, has told education groups a ‘human error’ in that survey caused it to get the number wrong.”
Nor was this a trivial error.
Using the spurious LEK stats, the MPAA was claiming 44% of Hollywood’s domestic losses could be attributed to file sharing students. [Our emphasis.]
It now says the figure should have been 15%. [Our emphasis.]
The MPAA of course tries to brush off this enormous mistake saying 15% is still significant,” and “justifies a major effort by colleges and universities to crack down on illegal file-sharing,” says AP, going on:
But Mark Luker, vice president of campus IT group Educause, says it doesn’t account for the fact that more than 80 percent of college students live off campus and aren’t necessarily using college networks. He says 3 percent is a more reasonable estimate for the percentage of revenue that might be at stake on campus networks.
“The 44 percent figure was used to show that if college campuses could somehow solve this problem on this campus, then it would make a tremendous difference in the business of the motion picture industry,” Luker said. The new figures prove “any solution on campus will have only a small impact on the industry itself.”
“We take this error very seriously and have taken strong and immediate action to both investigate the root cause of this problem as well as substantiate the accuracy of the latest report,” AP has LEK saying.
On its websit, LEK boasts of its “world-class analytical capability,” promising:
“Every solution we propose is informed by a combination of in-depth research and rigorous analysis, and tailored to the dynamics of your organization.”
(Thanks, Ray)
Also See:
p2pnet – MPAA info: old and inaccurate, June 23, 2006
Associated Press – MPAA Admits Mistake on Downloading Study, January 22, 2008
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January 23rd, 2008 at 11:53 am
The Bush administration lied more than 900 time to have their war in Irak and try to control the Iraki oil not get ride of vaporous weapon of mass destruction that nobody could ever find.
The RIAA/MPAA are doing the same: lying lying lying and lying! The Nazi Gobel once say the biger the lies the more it will be believed The Bush administration and the RIAA/MPAA companies member have listen well to Gobel. Unfortunatly for them he was wrong and now it is time to pay back for all the lies. Hopefully we will be able to jail the first and put out of business the second.
January 23rd, 2008 at 1:02 pm
you mean goebbels
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels
January 23rd, 2008 at 1:08 pm
> tailored to the dynamics of your organization.
Enough said.
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Sickening! It reads like another one of your spoofs but it’s real!!!!
January 24th, 2008 at 11:24 am
piratebay’s brokep has a piece too about numbers
http://blog.brokep.com/2008/01/24/estimation-constipation/
Note that there are only about 9 million swedes all together according to swedish sources
January 26th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
You know, the MPAA could easily have claimed college students were responsible for 100% of their losses due to piracy, and it would still technically be true.
Cuz after all, 100% of zero is still zero.
January 27th, 2008 at 10:52 am
I’m glad they lied, I would lie too to get people to stop downloading, in fact I would say P2P is full of porn, incest, child porn, bomb making ebooks (I seen a few banned explisive ebooks), Wifi Hack tools, thats enough to send to the FBI and get P2P Shut down forever.
They do have bomb making ebooks, and child porn, I seen a few nutjobs did thay, So YAY! I’m gonna shut P2P Networks down for good.
Bye Bye Bitforrent!
January 27th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Dude, are you high?
January 28th, 2008 at 9:22 am
” I’m glad they lied, I would lie too to get people to stop downloading, in fact I would say P2P is full of porn, incest, child porn, bomb making ebooks (I seen a few banned explisive ebooks), Wifi Hack tools, thats enough to send to the FBI and get P2P Shut down forever.
They do have bomb making ebooks, and child porn, I seen a few nutjobs did thay, So YAY! I’m gonna shut P2P Networks down for good. ”
All of that stuff can be found just as easily through normal http ( google searches etc )
methods.
Best eliminate public use of the entire internet.
Sorry, my mistake .. they ARE working on that, aren’t they ?
January 29th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
It’s time to report more IP Addresses.
hahahahaha more will goto prison
)))))))
February 20th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
What I find both amazing and at the same time very despicable is this “creative figure adjusting” going on to justify all this. To start out with an unbelievable number, do everything but swear up and down it is true, get a law passed in their favor over these bad figures and then turn around and say, “Well, so the figures were wrong by 300%, 15% is just as bad.” Funny thing is as always, someone else is footing the bill for this “law enactment” as well as the funding to get it in place and running. No one said it would actually work as intended.
Next thing, it will be discovered it isn’t working or it is not selective enough for the purpose. Of course it is now up to the uni’s to not only solve that for them but to fund the newer software development as well as equipment purchases to make it happen.
Where the real goof is that the ISPs such as ComCast are claiming that only 5% their users are using 50% of the bandwidth. Anything strike you as similar in this claim to the one about the amount of college students downloading? I’m also curious as to how this internet filter is gonna prevent Joe College from bringing by his external USB hard drive for a bit of sharing. You know… get all you want from this 500 gig drive and while you’re there how about these for me when you return the drive. Not only will it probably be faster than the uni’s filtered connection but it will allow more to be shared at a time. And it will have gone underground where it is harder to detect this sort of sharing. Just as it has always in the past, this law will make it ever harder to find the sharers, it will do nothing to prevent sharing. I’ve yet in all these years seen the sneaker net go down.
March 8th, 2008 at 10:45 am
DISCOVERED: RIAA AND MPAA JOINED FORCES IN 1910
Yesterday, while researching an old New York Global Times edition of April 1, 1910, I discovered this amazing article, which I can reproduce here, not because the article’s copyright has expired (they never do) but because the New York Global Times no longer exists due to the collapse of paper based newspaper readership in America.
RIAA AND MPAA JOIN FORCES AGAINST MUSIC SHARING
Reporter for New York Global Times: Robert Von Haggard
The Restaurant Industries Association of America (RIAA) and the Music Performers Association of America (MPAA) have, we have learned, joined forces to prevent the sharing of music though the new device known as vitrola, an invention of Thomas Edison and radio, an Italian invention, a fact denied by most Americans. Mr. Al Capone has been hired to represent RIAA and MPAA.
John Rice, a restaurant owner and the president of RIAA and Bill Singer of MPAA have issued a joint letter to the membership of RIAA and MPAA. We have obtained a copy of the letter from a RIAA employee that asked that his name not be given because he has not been authorized to speak of the letter. This is the text of the letter
Dear RIAA and MPAA members:
Our industry and jobs depends heavily on the music performed at restaurants to bring in customers. We see this new device invented by that phony and unschooled inventor, Edison, as a threat to the livelihood of the artists and chefs that we develop and work in our restaurants. Our consultant, Mr. Albert Capone of Capone Law (Capone), of Chicago tell us that each song shared to the public by the recording companies will result in 10 less customers visits to a restaurant, as customers stay at home to listen to music. The customer loss could be as much as 100 customers per record sold, Capone tells us, if that other new invention, the radio, is purchased by as low as 10 percent of the population. We, and the American economy, could, says Capone’s statistics, loose 44 percent of restaurant customers and jobs.
While Capone advises that it is very unlikely that radio will be successful he suggests that we be on the watch, just in case.
Because the livelihood of musical performers that work in restaurants is at risk, the Restaurant Industries Association of America (RIAA) and the Musical Performers Association of America (MPAA) have joined forces to fight the illegal sharing of music through new technologies such the vitrola and the radio. Capone estimates that about one million music performers will loose their jobs as restaurants and clubs and piano bars are shut down as customers stay home to listen to a vitrola to satisfy their crave for music.
Therefore we announce that we have designated Capone as our congressional lobbyist and legal representative. Capone will also advise us on tax and general legal matters. We picked Capone because of their experience and reputation. Capone’s mission will be to obtain changes in the copyright law and judicial decisions to make sure that sharing music through new inventions is prohibited. Capone will also identify and make settlement offers on our behalf to persons that may already be sharing music by playing their vitrola or radios in public places such as offices, workplaces and living rooms. Settlement offers will be made too to companies that manufacture the vitrola and radio devices and the records played therein.
Capone will pursue, in the event that vitrolas and radios are allowed to share music, legislation to add a Restaurant and Performer tax levy to the devices.
Capone will also advise us on the possibility of buying the vitrola and radio patents. We then would not license anyone for manufacturing the devices. This of course would be a temporary solution, as patents, unlike copyrights, do expire in a reasonably short time Capone is already negotiating with the inventors.
We are defending the rights of performers and chefs and our investments in their careers as well as protecting the American economy from a possible depression due to reduced eating by the American public.
As Capone makes progress on this pursuit, we will keep you informed.
Please keep this letter is confidential.
Sincerely
John Rice (RIAA) and Bill Singer (MPAA)
The New York Global Times tried to contact RIAA and MPAA for comment and were referred to Capone Law. The New York Global Times tried to contact Mr. Albert Capone. A Capone Law employee who answered the telephone said Mr. Capone was doing time on some tax matters and was unavailable.