MPAA Admits College Students Not Biggest Movie Pirates

[rkr1958]

Hollywood laid much of the blame for illegal movie downloading on college students. Now, it says its math was wrong.

In a 2005 study it commissioned, the Motion Picture Association of America claimed that 44 percent of the industry's domestic losses came from illegal downloading of movies by college students, who often have access to high-bandwidth networks on campus.

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.

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.

It now blames college students for about 15 percent of revenue loss.

The MPAA says that's still significant, and justifies a major effort by colleges and universities to crack down on illegal file-sharing.

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."

The original report, by research firm LEK, claims the U.S. motion picture industry lost $6.1 billion to piracy worldwide, with most of the losses overseas. It identified the typical movie pirate as a male aged 16-24.

MPAA said in a statement that no errors had been found in the study besides the percentage of revenue losses that could be attributed to college students, but that it would hire a third party to validate the numbers.

"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," the group said in a statement.

Terry Hartle, vice president of the American Council on Education, which represents higher education in Washington, said the mistakes showed the entertainment industry has unfairly targeted college campuses.

"Illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing is a society-wide problem. Some of it occurs at college s and universities but it is a small portion of the total," he said, adding colleges will continue to take the problem seriously, but more regulation isn't necessary.

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[Vid-Kid]

So, the number drops from 44% down to 15% with only 3% occurring on campus networks? It makes me wonder how accurate any of their other estimates are, and the stupid laws they had pushed through based on those estimates.

[Rich86]

Actually, I think the biggest pirates in the movie industry are the actors and movie studios themselves . . . . 8)

[SCDVD]

I'm not suggesting there is no pirating; there obviously is. But an often overlooked aspect to this whole piracy issue is how the subject is played internally within the motion picture studios. The whole flap is a very often used smokescreen for the "boys at the top". Management plays the piracy card to help defend poor earnings and lackluster performance. They transfer the blame to pirating losses. It seems to work. You don't often hear about management shakeups and firings in the studios compared to other "normal" companies where the stockholders and board of directors expects results from the companies' management - period.

[lordsmurf]

"it says its math was wrong" ....... Oh yeah, there's a shock.
Operating an abacus with your feet while drunk and blindfolded does that.

[Vid-Kid]

Yeah, the losses due kids on college computers dropped from about twice as much as the studios made with "Titanic", down to about what it cost them to make "Waterworld". Gee, do you suppose if they put every one of those kids in jail, they would make "Waterworld 2".

[Nilfennasion]

I would actually pay good money to see Waterworld 2. I am betting it would be a damn sight funnier than the likes of Norbit.

[Noahtuck]

Funny.....
I always thought i read those damn college students were the reason behind all the "music" file sharing that was costing the RIAA & artist's all their $$$$$$.....
Too bad so many bands are now releasing their music directly and cutting those "hard working executives" out of their fair share 8)
Now they are blaming the college students for the "movie" piracy.... and are WRONG!!!!!!!!!!

"it says its math was wrong" ....... Oh yeah, there's a shock.
Operating an abacus with your feet while drunk and blindfolded does that.

Who ever in their right mind would'a ever thunk it

I would actually pay good money to see Waterworld 2. I am betting it would be a damn sight funnier than the likes of Norbit.

Man... yer on a roll tonight eh.... 8)

[Forum Troll]

I thought it was the cammers in Canada, China, and Malaysia that was the biggest cause of their "revenue loss".

[Conquest10]

Actually, I think the biggest pirates in the movie industry are the actors and movie studios themselves . . . . 8)

A funny movie that deals with this is one titled This Film Is Not Yet Rated. Its a documentary about the BS that goes around with the MPAA ratings system. Well anyway, the director submits the film to be rated and is assured that no unauthorized copies would be made of it. It turns out that they did in fact make at least one copy of it that they reluctantly admitted to but said that that was the only one.

[zoobie]

they passed laws based on this phoney info?
some fat cat at the top probably had a vested interest
Norbit blew...