MPAA admits it overstated the effects of college piracy, times it made a beer run

The MPAA has never been too high on college kids -- remember the dishonor roll? -- but it looks like Hollywood set is bummed about not being invited to that last kegger, because the MPAA is now admitting that it drastically overstated the effect of college downloading in previous studies. Back in 2005, the MPAA claimed that a whopping 44 percent of revenue losses came directly at the hands of carefree coeds nationwide, and used that number to pressure colleges into enforcing harsher downloading policies and even propose legislation currently before Congress that would tie federal education funds to copyright enforcement requirements. We're not sure why the industry is now backing off that 44 percent number, but it's now saying that "human error" resulted in a miscalculation, and the revenue loss from college piracy is more like 15 percent -- a number which is further disputed by campus IT groups, who say it should be more like three percent. Of course, while it's good to see the MPAA take an upfront stance on this, simply admitting you're sleazy doesn't actually wipe the slime off, so let's see how the industry approaches future studies, shall we?

[Khris @ Jan 23rd 2008 4:09PM]

Quel surprise!!

[Ayle @ Jan 23rd 2008 5:28PM]

"Quelle" not "quel", surprise is feminine.

[Khris @ Jan 23rd 2008 5:57PM]

What do you expect from High School French! ;)

[MPAA BLOWS @ Jan 23rd 2008 4:10PM]

MPAA......come play some Halo so I can T-bag you in your eye.

[John @ Jan 23rd 2008 4:14PM]

Human error: An excuse for lying and justification for nigh-extortion, but not for downloading a movie you would never pay for.

[Paul @ Jan 23rd 2008 4:16PM]

I agree, this ranks up there with "I don't recall" on the list of lame excuses

[Kyle Burghart @ Jan 23rd 2008 7:18PM]

Thats so true. When will the MPAA just die?

[Garst @ Jan 24th 2008 5:01AM]

"Human error" is worse than "no comment." Aren't you suppose to double check your numbers before you post a study? And according to an AP report, MPAA still states that 15% is still a significant number of students. What I have to say to that is being off by 29% is even more significant than the real number. Overstating statistics by a magnitude of three is beyond human error, having 85% would be human error (the percentage of student and non-students flipped). 44% can only be conceivably be explained as an arbitrary number.

[athousandleaves @ Jan 23rd 2008 4:20PM]

I've downloaded about 10 movies this week already... MPAA's making it hard for me to keep up!

[Judas @ Jan 23rd 2008 4:37PM]

fuck the industry. i express support for my favorite artists by going to the theaters, and attending concerts.

[a ham sandwich @ Jan 23rd 2008 4:39PM]

so does the MPAA want us to like them or not?

[Loban @ Jan 23rd 2008 4:52PM]

No, I'm sure they don't care. Why would they?

[dennis @ Jan 23rd 2008 5:11PM]

The MPAA is collectively determined to prevent whatever happened to the music recording industry from happening to the movie/TV show making industry. That's all it cares about. The MPAA is aided by the fact that high definition video watching requires a new kind of TV, while the switchover the digital TV broadcasts is happening at exactly the same time. Fortunately, you don't need brand new kinds of audio speakers to ilsten to a good audio source. I personally don't think the MPAA has much to worry about. They can keep this up until every home has a 3D telepresence room with high resolution monitors comprising the walls, floor, and ceiling and we get immersive entertainment.

[Mark @ Jan 23rd 2008 9:21PM]

@ dennis
All I can say is AnyDVD HD FTW! Ironically enough, I support them so I actually bought their software.

[Muu @ Jan 23rd 2008 4:44PM]

Hell, whatever actions they've been taking's probably had a more profound effect than the piracy itself. Warezing kids will be warezing kids, unless you can convince them somehow to wean off the habit -- fear tactics can work to a degree, but that just means you got kids running outside the dorms to download their stuff.

Of course, I don't know what you'd do education-wise to curve piracy either, but if that doesn't get resolved you'll have college grads that'll find it more reasonable to spend their income on hardware, while continuing their habit of downloading the videos and software.

[Loban @ Jan 23rd 2008 4:48PM]

Offer low cost, fast, high quality, HD downloads and maybe this wouldn't be a problem. Illegally downloaded music has lightened up considerably since you've been able to download it legally using iTunes or some other software. Just let me download HD movies to my PC so I can stream them to my xbox 360 for a flat monthly fee and I'll be happy.

[nh @ Jan 23rd 2008 7:21PM]

Spot on. It's a strange situation when the pirates offer a better product than the original. Napster gave people what they wanted 8 years ago with easy mp3 downloads and only now do we have something similar that the RIAA are happy with (namely iTunes Plus).

Please don't let the MPAA take that long! I want my DivX downloads, and I want to pay for them but I can't!

[jtc970 @ Jan 23rd 2008 10:20PM]

That would be nice until you get a call from your ISP claiming you are using too much bandwidth.
"How much is too much?" you'll ask
"We can't tell you" they'll reply
Happened to me when I tried watching podcasts using Media Player.

[Loban @ Jan 24th 2008 10:09AM]

Well then, if media is going to start clogging the interwebs, the powers that be need to lay the plans for an entirely new internet hardware trunk dedicated solely to media. I realize this is not easy and would take forever, but the internet isn't just for text anymore.

[kjb434 @ Jan 23rd 2008 4:51PM]

I guess they finally realized that the studios aren't making as much because most of their movies are complete and utter bull crap.

Just thing of how many movies are remakes of old Hollywood Movies or remakes of foreign films.

Where is the originality?

[brian @ Jan 23rd 2008 4:56PM]

oh its alright,
just stop marketing crappy movies

im not saying all new movies are bad.. its just that so many suck a lot, and im tired of paying $10.50 to just watch a movie (or $19 or so to own).
i already pay for cable, which is just full of shows now showing off how rich the moviestars are.. which just furthers my point.

[John @ Jan 23rd 2008 5:01PM]

How does one determine revenue losses, much less categorize them? I mean, there's a lot of money out there that isn't mine. Can I attribute my not making that money to the MPAA? With 760 billion US dollars in circulation, it seems that there's well over 759 billion dollars of revenue I didn't make last year.

[grjohnston @ Jan 23rd 2008 5:31PM]

I hope there's well over 759 billion you didn't make. The money I made is beyond just a fraction of a billion.

[ed. @ Jan 23rd 2008 5:27PM]

FUCK THE MPAA!!

[Ian @ Jan 23rd 2008 5:35PM]

Down with big brother!

[Brandon Bradley @ Jan 23rd 2008 5:46PM]

Let's see... Human error...cross index with common math mistakes and 44% should have been 4.4% But then that wouldn't get much attention so that couldn't be right could it.... so now they are trying to split the difference.

Still sounds like bad math put out for politician consumption to me.

[KR @ Jan 23rd 2008 5:57PM]

If you wanna check out how friggin' messed up the MPAA is, watch the movie "This Film is Not Yet Rated". Be warned, the film itself is rated NC-17...

[Kyle Burghart @ Jan 23rd 2008 7:22PM]

http://www.mininova.org/tor/543513

Make the MPAA even more happy!

[John @ Jan 23rd 2008 7:23PM]

To be fair, I think he should have cut out the parts illustrating graphic nudity and submitted that version to see if they'd try and quash it anyway.

[Razor @ Jan 23rd 2008 6:01PM]

My wife and I have Netflicks and I gotta say in the past year we haven't watched a movie that I would want to copy let alone go out and buy. If the industry wants my hard earned cash they need to put out better stuff.

[macona @ Jan 23rd 2008 6:04PM]

MPAA Study = Pulling a random number out of their collective asses.

[paul34 @ Jan 23rd 2008 6:10PM]

That's usually what happens when you try to challenge people who actually have some education - we strike back. Go talk to a bunch of bribe-accepting idiots (such as a government agency, legislative or judicial body), and they'll eat all your words all day long.

Screw you MPAA.

[thethirdmoose @ Jan 23rd 2008 6:38PM]

Well, thanks to netflix, I _wouldn't_ dl movies, but of course watch now doesn't work on a mac... what can I do?

[ericisshort @ Jan 23rd 2008 9:57PM]

Buy a PC, or run parallels.

[John @ Jan 23rd 2008 8:51PM]

Thumbs up their asses, thumbs up their asses...

[Kaeruyaki @ Jan 24th 2008 1:55AM]

Um... college students download movies because they can't afford them. They're not eating into sales if they had no intention of buying the movie anyway.

[hydrogen_wv @ Jan 24th 2008 4:27PM]

Spot on.. I think the 3% number is more accurate. College kids, for the most part, aren't hurting revenue, because if they didn't download it, they'd either borrow it from a friend or not watch it.

Same thing with music. I buy the music that is worth the money. If I didn't download the rest of it, that doesn't mean i'd buy it.. because I wouldn't.