MPAA Has Another Record Year Despite Piracy

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Despite the "ongoing impact of digital theft," 2010 global box office receipts hit a record high again. This year's box office total beat the record sales in 2009, besting the record sales in 2008, which were better than 2007's record sales and the record sales of 2006. Piracy is KILLING the industry. :rolleyes:

It was a strong year at the movies in 2010. Despite a weak economy, shifting business models, and the ongoing impact of digital theft, we had another record year at the global box office driven by growth outside the U.S. and Canada.
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WTF? I am so fucking sick of hearing about how piracy is killing the industry when they're raking in cash hand over fist.

All it is is a pure unadulterated money grab by lobbying and bribing congress to gain iron-fisted, written-into-law control of everything we watch and hear.
 
So despite a year of amazingly shitty movies, obscene budgets and "Debilitating" losses to piracy, they somehow managed to rake in a record year..

This is sort of like crying to the government how hard your life is, getting a welfare check then posting a youtube video of you pimping your Bentley.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
So despite a year of amazingly shitty movies, obscene budgets and "Debilitating" losses to piracy, they somehow managed to rake in a record year..

This is sort of like crying to the government how hard your life is, getting a welfare check then posting a youtube video of you pimping your Bentley.
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#1 reason I don't go to the movies anymore. Crap on screen and a wasted 2 hours does not equate to a $9 non-refundable movie ticket.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
So despite a year of amazingly shitty movies, obscene budgets and "Debilitating" losses to piracy, they somehow managed to rake in a record year..

This is sort of like crying to the government how hard your life is, getting a welfare check then posting a youtube video of you pimping your Bentley.
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Exactly. And don't forget there are "economic recessions" across the globe either :rolleyes:.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
So despite a year of amazingly shitty movies, obscene budgets and "Debilitating" losses to piracy, they somehow managed to rake in a record year..

This is sort of like crying to the government how hard your life is, getting a welfare check then posting a youtube video of you pimping your Bentley.
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You don't like corporate welfare?
 
Dekoth-E- said:
So despite a year of amazingly shitty movies, obscene budgets and "Debilitating" losses to piracy, they somehow managed to rake in a record year..

This is sort of like crying to the government how hard your life is, getting a welfare check then posting a youtube video of you pimping your Bentley.
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Exactly, they say one thing to the shareholders and something else to the public and government.
 
I'm not saying that piracy is right, but the movie studios are most certainly Greedy Ba$tard$ if the reason they say they're going after pirates is to recoup lost income. If they were in some way trying to improve the overall moral character of people, then going after pirates makes sense.
 
The only piracy we should be concerned about are the Somalian bastards kidnapping and killing anyone who travels by boat in that part of the world. :mad:
 
As Jack Valenti said, "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."

They want absolute control over how you use their product. Remember when EULAs started saying that you are only licensed to use it and that you don't really own the media that you just bought?
 
heatlesssun said:
Not at all, it's simply how I would want someone to treat my stuff. I'm sure that if I "borrowed" stuff from half the people here they'd be happy to blow my brains out.
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You can't take a picture of that building, I own the intellectual property rights to it.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
You don't like corporate welfare?
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If it weren't for tax shelters, corporate welfare, and subsidies, where would the greats like Uwe Boll be today? :)

Although it is kind of amusing how Hollywood takes advantage of other countries subsidies to pay for their films.
 
heatlesssun said:
Not at all, it's simply how I would want someone to treat my stuff. I'm sure that if I "borrowed" stuff from half the people here they'd be happy to blow my brains out.
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and again the apples and oranges..."borrow" their car and yes, half the people on here would be happy to give you some extra love holes.

clone their vehicle and drive off leaving theirs perfectly intact and valid... not the same thing :D
 
But what if they're trying to sell me that car? No thanks, I'll just make a copy, that won't hurt yours.
 
heatlesssun said:
But what if they're trying to sell me that car? No thanks, I'll just make a copy, that won't hurt yours.
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Well, they did have another record year. Piracy can be a pain in the ass, especially for those trying to make a legitimate living, but it cannot be stopped, no matter how restrictive the law becomes.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
Well, they did have another record year. Piracy can be a pain in the ass, especially for those trying to make a legitimate living, but it cannot be stopped, no matter how restrictive the law becomes.
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Can't stop the signal baby! ;)
 
Manaknight said:
and again the apples and oranges..."borrow" their car and yes, half the people on here would be happy to give you some extra love holes.

clone their vehicle and drive off leaving theirs perfectly intact and valid... not the same thing :D
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Ahhh...but the company that manufactures that car wouldn't be very happy about it. :D
 
Well to play devils advocate here... one major reason the motion picture industry is making money hand over fist is because of 3D movies adding 25-40% more per ticket for glasses that cost a quarter to stamp out in some Chinese sweatshop
 
sfsuphysics said:
Well to play devils advocate here... one major reason the motion picture industry is making money hand over fist is because of 3D movies adding 25-40% more per ticket for glasses that cost a quarter to stamp out in some Chinese sweatshop
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That and the fact that the majority of viewers don't have a 3D home theater system at home yet.
 
it is because of piracy that they had a record year.

without piracy, there is no exposure, and no sales.
 
heatlesssun said:
But what if they're trying to sell me that car? No thanks, I'll just make a copy, that won't hurt yours.
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Well then I guess market forces would dictate the car to be worthless just like movies.

Propping up an industry with bought laws and screaming for a free market doesn't strike you as a hypocrisy?
 
osrk said:
Propping up an industry with bought laws and screaming for a free market doesn't strike you as a hypocrisy?
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Perhaps so, but I worry more about my own hypocrisy than that of others and if someone were to take something that I labored on without compensation I know for a fact that wouldn't like that.
 
heatlesssun said:
Perhaps so, but I worry more about my own hypocrisy than that of others and if someone were to take something that I labored on without compensation I know for a fact that wouldn't like that.
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But that's not the case at all. They're clearly being compensated pretty nicely. How many people on this forum get an 8% raise a year? Also with ever increasing revenue I'd expect them to shut up about getting COICA passed so that they can curtail this "digital theft."
 
Eisenblut said:
They want absolute control over how you use their product. Remember when EULAs started saying that you are only licensed to use it and that you don't really own the media that you just bought?
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Indeed, I just read the EULA for Crysis Warhead, and it's specifically stated that you should dispose all copies of the game once they "withdraw the product from the market", and those you cannot dispose of would be seized by Crytek.

heatlesssun said:
Perhaps so, but I worry more about my own hypocrisy than that of others and if someone were to take something that I labored on without compensation I know for a fact that wouldn't like that.
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Take something? Nothing's been taken from you. Of course you won't have any compensation because there was no reason to compensate you in the first place, as there was no sale. And "NO" sale is not "LOST" sale. Not having sold something doesn't mean you have just lost something that should have been sold.
 
entropy13 said:
Take something? Nothing's been taken from you. Of course you won't have any compensation because there was no reason to compensate you in the first place, as there was no sale. And "NO" sale is not "LOST" sale. Not having sold something doesn't mean you have just lost something that should have been sold.
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So the work was done and the pirate is enjoying the benefits for free. If there's no sale fine, then there should be no benefit to the pirate as well. This is were the logic of this argument has flaws. There may not have been a lost sale but there certainly was free benefit and THIS is the problem.
 
Eisenblut said:
They want absolute control over how you use their product. Remember when EULAs started saying that you are only licensed to use it and that you don't really own the media that you just bought?
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Exactly. What happens when Duct Tape manufacturers get a law passed that you are only allowed to use their products on actual ducts?
 
srangara said:
Why would they be so stupid as to do that? You can use it for whatever you want--you just have to pay to do so.

Duct tape sucks for ducts, by the way.
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I was making an analogy between the mindset of different products. I did not think that they would actually push this law.

In fact, duct tape makes want customers to find new ways to use thier products. They make more $$ that way.

Now if MPAA, RIAA, Apple, Microsoft and others could figure out some way to capitalize in that environment, we would all be happy.
 
heatlesssun said:
Not at all, it's simply how I would want someone to treat my stuff. I'm sure that if I "borrowed" stuff from half the people here they'd be happy to blow my brains out.
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I have a problem with the industry and enthusiasts of RIAA/MPAA to refer to it as theft and piracy, which is such a stretch of either definition, it's not even funny. It is "illegal downloading" and it shouldn't be exaggerated as "piracy" or "theft'. That's doing pirates and thieves a disservice, LOL.
 
beowulf7 said:
I have a problem with the industry and enthusiasts of RIAA/MPAA to refer to it as theft and piracy, which is such a stretch of either definition, it's not even funny. It is "illegal downloading" and it shouldn't be exaggerated as "piracy" or "theft'. That's doing pirates and thieves a disservice, LOL.
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It way called piracy LONG before the Internet existed when people were copying tapes and floppy disks.
 
entropy13 said:
Take something? Nothing's been taken from you. Of course you won't have any compensation because there was no reason to compensate you in the first place, as there was no sale. And "NO" sale is not "LOST" sale. Not having sold something doesn't mean you have just lost something that should have been sold.
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heatlesssun said:
So the work was done and the pirate is enjoying the benefits for free. If there's no sale fine, then there should be no benefit to the pirate as well. This is were the logic of this argument has flaws. There may not have been a lost sale but there certainly was free benefit and THIS is the problem.
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I would say a better example of this "no sale" would be if I took a picture of some famous hottie and then used that photo at a later date, in order to relieve a little stress. As far as I know there is no law concerning the downloading of copy-righted material. Distributing it for profit or free would be the "illegal" action. Then again IANAL.
 
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