MPAA Admits Mistake on Downloading Study

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Remember that study released by the MPAA a while back claiming college students were responsible for 44% of illegal movie download? Now the MPAA says that, due to “human error” the information was wrong and the number should have been 15%.

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.
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Can someone explain to me where the other 29% went and why it was never noticed in the original study? How can we even trust the new figures?
 
you cannot trust the figures nor can any of the claims be trusted. lets face it, the MPAA and the RIAA have managed to perfect a campaign of alienation and distrust with the consumer.

i cannot understand why movie studios (and in the RIAA's case - record labels) have not sought to remove and distance themselves. of course they would have to admit being wrong, and maybe adjust their business model to current consumer desires etc.. :rolleyes:
 
Points for the "man up" but that ain't saying much.

I agree with Griff though. Both the RIAA and the MPAA have no idea how to market their products in the current environment.

They may have some creative and innovative people working for them but they're being suppressed by old washed up dudes desperately holding onto their pathetic jobs. My guess...clean house!
 
I agree with you Steve, how can we even trust these new numbers?
 
lol, poll numbers are so stupid. John Kerry is going to win the 2004 election by a land slide according to the latest CNN polls! :p
 
Here's a number we might all agree upon: the MPAA is 100% full of crap. That is all. :D
 
Does anyone trust any PR org in any company now?

Numbers are too easily spun. Maybe the reports need some stats classes to understand this info better before writing articles and blindly believing companies.
 
What a joke. These fools look dumber and dumber every day. Its stories like this that make me want to download illegally. ;)
 
ir0nw0lf said:
Here's a number we might all agree upon: the MPAA is 100% full of crap. That is all. :D
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QFT.

If the piracy of music and movies was honestly that bad, there wouldn't be millions of dollars invested into seeing movies at the theaters upon release day, and albums going platinum wouldn't be happening at all today.
 
Maybe they wouldn't get their figures wrong so much if they stopped pulling them out of their asses.
 
Here’s what I don’t get: ever since we were little kids learning “percentages”, little Johnny has learned there can only be 100% of a given item. So, if this study was REAL and this was TRULY a mistake, didn’t anyone wonder why they had 29% left over?

Poll people: Survey numbers say that, out of every one hundred people that illegally download music: 15 are college students. 16 are old people. 20 are high school students. 20 are investment analysts and 29 are misc. cretins.

MPAA: 40% are college students! PANIC, send out a press release! PANIC! Sue somebody!

Poll people: Umm, if college students make up 40% of illegal downloaders, what should we do with this left over 29%?

MPAA: Sue them too!
 
...claims the U.S. motion picture industry lost $6.1 billion to piracy worldwide, with most of the losses overseas...
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Gee, that's a surprise: you mean there are folks in foreign countries out there selling illegal copies of movies? Oh wait, I don't have to travel to a foreign country - I can just walk to any open NYC street corner and find someone pushing the newest (theatrical) release on DVD. I can't tell you how many folks I've met (especially in the city) during my installs that own yet-to-be released movies on DVD that they've purchased from an "associate" or "friend." When I think of all the measures the MPAA has taken against colleges (all based on faulty information), it really makes my blood boil.

I can just imagine a news cartoonist's reaction to this: there's a representative from the MPAA talking on his Blackberry to some Washington lobby about the "college crisis" and the caption reads, "I don't care what they think, the statistics don't lie!" Never mind the fact that the representative is standing right in front of a con hawking a table full of $5 pirated DVD's. :rolleyes:

This snafu IMO proves just how dependent we've become on polls, surveys and estimates rather than hard concrete investigation and research. Sure it's a hell of a lot cheaper to hire a firm to sample, review and surmise, and it's much easier to simply skew such results towards an agenda, but in the end no one wins.

- James
 
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