MPAA’s shock horror study
p2pnet.net News:- Nearly a quarter of Net users have illegally downloaded a film at one time or another, says the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America).
Wow! 25% of the Online World!
However, as a story in the UK’s Guardian Unlimited points out:
“The unexpectedly high figure finds some explanation in the study’s methodology: only broadband users were polled. Broadband penetration stands at only 43% even in the US, so the real figures – even assuming they are fair and accurate – would be under half the MPAA’s.”
What else is new? It’s well known that entertainment industry statistics vary according to the state of the moon.
“Calling piracy a ‘growing global epidemic’, the MPAA study says the figure rises to 58% in South Korea, and that roughly one third of offenders there said they were spending less money on legitimate viewing channels like cinemas and video,” says the story, continuing:
“The MPAA, a group representing the big Hollywood studios, is entrenched in a long campaign against global piracy, which it claims costs its backers around $3.5bn in lost revenues each year.”
MPAA spokesman Matt Grossman is quoted by Reuters here as saying the study “indicates a direct correlation between illegal downloading online and of a legitimate market being negatively impacted.”
In fact, the movie business is booming, Big Time.
North American box office records say the movie industry took in $1.03 billion during June, a 14% increase on June 2003′s previous monthly record.
One point zero three BILLION?
The previous record achieved last year was a paltry $906.6 million.
No entertainment industry study has ever shown how a download – movie, music or anything else – equals a concomitant sales loss.
Nonetheless and notwithstanding, “A spokesperson said the study demonstrated a connection between significant piracy levels in certain markets and a corresponding drop in legitimate film revenues,” says the Guardian.
“Perhaps most alarming of all, the study says 17% of respondents who said they had never illegally downloaded a film also said they planned to do so within the next 12 months.”
The Los Angeles Police Department recently hosted a teenager caught with a camcorder during the Spidey 2 movie.
“The LAPD arrested him and took him to Devonshire Division for 10 hours in Adult Prison Cells and then to Juvenile Hall for arraigment,” said a p2pnet reader. “Poor Little Guy got the Abu Garaib Treatment. For being stupid.”
July 9th, 2004 at 4:50 pm
“No entertainment industry study has ever shown how a download – movie, music or anything else – equals a concomitant sales loss”
Broaden that…no one crying “losses due to piracy!” has ever shown that there has been lost sales due to “piracy” The figures that the BSA, the RIAA, and the MPAA regularly spit out have to do with the value of materials that are monoply-priced. Most “pirates” forced to pay these prices would opt to not purchased the “pirated” digital information. iTunes does some business at $0.99 per song, but p2p would fade away and the RIAA would make a hell of a lot more money if the going rate were just $0.09 per song. The convenience/price ratio would come into balance. My entertainment budget isn’t changing or growing–vendors are just going to have to smarten up and figure out how to compete for the existing dollars, instead of trying to extort them out of me by hiding behind dying monopoly tactics
July 9th, 2004 at 5:40 pm
Hey arseface,
So unless the price of intellectual property fits into your view of reasonableness you have the right to pirate the property on P2P?
“iTunes does some business at $0.99 per song, but p2p would fade away and the RIAA would make a hell of a lot more money if the going rate were just $0.09 per song.”
I have no sympathy for the RIAA, but your argument sucks. The owner of the intellectual property has the right to charge whatever the hell they feel like – whether its .01 or $150.00 song. You have absolutley no standing to dictate what is a fair price –
YOU DO however have th right to decide if you will purchase the copyrighted work from the author at the selling price, but you do not have the right to say – “the price is to high I’ll steal it on a black market.”
I’m all for P2P use, but we need to make reasonable arguments.
July 9th, 2004 at 5:43 pm
I love dvd shrink!
July 9th, 2004 at 10:17 pm
this crap is so phkin sickening but they keep on getting away with it
July 9th, 2004 at 10:42 pm
Interesting story. I find the timing interesting also. Last night when I got home I checked my mail. Upon sifting through the junk mail I came accross a 4×8 manilla colored envelope, which was from my cable company. I opened it up and read the letter. It stated that my cable company was approached by the MPAA, and that my IP address has had been used to download a movie from a p2p network. More specifically, BTclient. The letter followed with details of the files that I had downloaded.
Needles to say I shut the computer off, after it had been running for a month or so, downloading constantly.
Hopefuly the MPAA doesnt go after me, after all it was just one movie.
July 13th, 2004 at 6:14 am
Thats why I don’t download mainstream movies. I just use it to download porn.
It’s too easy right now to track exactly who you are, where you are at and what you’re downloading – since the MPAA is made of the major studios, downloading adult movies falls out of their purview.
Besides – lets be honest. It takes upwards of two weeks sometimes to download 700Mbs. I won’t waste my time when I can just buy the darn thing on ebay or amazon.com for $10.00 and the quality will be better by a significant margin.
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