MPAA Responds To "Piracy Isn't Harmful" Study

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Not only is the MPAA a little hot under the collar over a recent study claiming piracy doesn't hurt the movie industry, they did a point-by-point rebuttal of the study.

Last week, the London School of Economics released a media policy brief suggesting that piracy isn’t harming the creative industries and in fact, may be helpful. Unfortunately, the paper includes no new data and the authors’ arguments include some fundamental scientific flaws that undermine the paper’s credibility. (This isn’t the first brief with these kinds of flaws that we’ve seen from these authors.)
 
This from the same people who claim that piracy of movies/music exceeds in value all the commerce in the entire world.
 
Online infringement is a complicated problem, and finding solutions will require every player in the Internet ecosystem to come to the table willing to take meaningful steps to help ensure that everyone plays by OUR RULES online.

I corrected the statement they made. ;)
 
MPAA tosses up a website to "debunk" a study someone else does and it's all good. Anyone questions the MPAA on their ideas that piracy funds terrorism, slavery, child pornography, drug trade, etc and we're supposed to just accept it at face value.
 
Pffft... Blah, blah, blah, we're losing money to pirates, blah, blah, blah. Their squaks are as much background noise as a Geiger counter is to background radiation. Nothing substantial, nothing they can do about it, and really does very little, if any, harm.
 
Not to sound silly, but why would an ISP, etc. get involved?

A) It's not up to an ISP to police some third parties concerns nor incur the cost for such activities.
B) More importantly, if they choose to participate then they can't be considered a common carrier and open themselves up to lawsuits and being "responsible" to stop the piracy.
 
MPAA are the masters of the universe.
 
I also love that the MPAA is so cocky that they think they can refute people that bothered to research and produce an actual study by saying "nah, that't not right"
 
What's so stupid about this is that the movie industry is still making billions. Bad movies are going to do bad in income earned. They just need to stop using piracy as a scapegoat.
 
MPAA tosses up a website to "debunk" a study someone else does and it's all good. Anyone questions the MPAA on their ideas that piracy funds terrorism, slavery, child pornography, drug trade, etc and we're supposed to just accept it at face value.

well commercial piracy sure you know the kind where some one is paying 5 bucks for a shitty cam of a movie
but not online piracy.... you know the kind were most people arent making any money off it
 
Piracy is a victimless crime. So I'm not surprised most people are not on MPAA's side.

...or maybe, it just happens to be more complicated than every pirated download is a lost sale and everyone who does it is a criminal that should be sued for multiple times their life expected earnings for each old song they downloaded.
 
"fundamental scientific flaws"

This coming from the group that nearly invented the term.
 
And how much money do the artists recoup when the MPAA fines someone? What I've heard over the years could be wrong but the MPAA are just as much crooks as the people stealing the music/movies.
 
All the money that Pirates Spend?

Pirates will pay a premium for Internet Access
Pirates will pay for more hard drives, NAS
Pirates buy equipment to record and playback content
Pirates will pay for additional services: Usenet, VPNs ETC

Also...

Pirates help to show the industry what people really want?
From content to delivery systems ETC.

In the late 90's how many people got broadband for the primary purpose of downloading music?

Many industries benefit from online piracy.
Many pirates, but more legal content then non-pirates.

Really, who can fill a 320gig iPod with legal content?
 
And how much money do the artists recoup when the MPAA fines someone? What I've heard over the years could be wrong but the MPAA are just as much crooks as the people stealing the music/movies.

Usually the artists never see a dime.
 
If your job was to fight ghosts and someone said that ghosts weren't real, you would argue it too, even if you didn't believe in ghosts yourself.
 
"You have to address the counterfactual question “what would sales have been in the absence of piracy?”"

Translation: "We're imagining so much more money than we made, and you should imagine it too!"

Who comes up with this shit? You can't "address a question" about how something WOULD be. That's like saying "What if Hitler died of dysentery after failing at art?", you'd have to be a goddamn time traveler.

I think the reply to these asshats should be "Well, you need to address the counter-counterfactual question of "What if the MPAA and RIAA didn't even exist? What would people do then to acquire music? Would they *gasp* pay the artists? Would the artists *gasp* use forms of distribution unconstrained by asshattery!?"

Asshats.
 
Here is my feeling on this:

Ending Piracy is not going to increase anything. People that can not/will not spend money on a movie simply will not see that movie. Most of the time, people will Pirate a movie just to watch it, but actually buy/rent the disc when it is released.

The real problem I see is on the pricing model of the entertainment industry. Going the a theater is so ridiculously expensive that they are running themselves into the ground. A night at the theater with a family of 4 would cost close to $100 between tickets and food. Not only are you spending a lot, but then they proceed to bombard you with a ton of advertisements, commercials, and trailers.

They really need to FIX THEIR PROBLEM of pricing first. If they want advertisements, commercials, and trailers then that is fine, but charge me a few bucks instead. Perhaps make more expensive tickets available with JUST THE MOVIE.

Same with DVDs. I don't mind watching some ads and stuff on my $1 redbox rental but hell no am I planning on spending $25 on a purchase full of ads.

The idea of padding DVD's with extras and screen savers and wallpapers does not justify the price. People want to buy a movie FOR THE MOVIE.

The problem here is the entertainment industry and it is driving people to piracy, just not for the cost standpoint but the principle of not being ripped off.

I do not download movies because I am a movie buff. I cannot afford to spend $100 to take my family out to the theater, so we simply do not go. We don't download them because the quality typically sucks. We have no problem waiting for a $1.25 rental at redbox though.

So if anyone is hurting the industry, MPAA, its the industry.
 
If your job was to fight ghosts and someone said that ghosts weren't real, you would argue it too, even if you didn't believe in ghosts yourself.

Sure doesn't mean we can't make fun of them. Or that, someday, they'll go out of business. And just like ghost hunters, they're already irrelevant.
 
They're as relevant as the Thompson guy when he was suing people. Sure, they both make outrageous claims, but they do so while causing trouble for people.
 
I think some of the shit the MPAA has pulled is wrong, hell, outrageous even. They have acted like complete douche bags several times. But piracy is wrong and don't even try to justify it because it is just wrong. It is theft and you can try and convince yourself of some bullshit like people go back later and buy legal copies, maybe, maybe there are a very few people that do that, but it sure as hell ain't going to be most people so stop kidding yourself. And no amount of side benefits justify theft. And since I don't like the MPAA and really don't care if they make their money I still have to recognize that the artist who does deserve his cut, won't get it if you aren't paying for his shit, so you can't dodge that one.

So there, if your pirating copyrighted products your just a theif, at least own up to it ffs. Then we can move on to how to free the artists from the evil grip of the industry and the MPAA themselves. We all know they need new business models and it's been slowly changing, those old bastards are reluctant to take any risks. But it is changing and the artists are the ones that hold the keys to this. Without contracts the MPAA looses rights to the work. That is where you have to start, the artists have to work with the up and coming talent, they have to invest themselves into raising a generation of free market talent and we have to be ready to support them with our money buy forking over our bucks for what they produce.

Now before one of you attacks me for my puritanical comments keep in mind, I never claimed I wasn't guilty myself. Of course I also reserve the right to claim this is not a confession either. All I am saying is a spade is a spade, it is what it is. If you don't pay for it, and the ones who own it didn't give it to you, then you stole it. At least have the nutz to be honest about it :D
 
Anyone questions the MPAA on their ideas that piracy funds terrorism, slavery, child pornography, drug trade, etc and we're supposed to just accept it at face value.

And I am pretty sure I have seen some examples of this as well in other countries. In fact and in counterpoint, I think I have even seen examples where our own country has facilitated these things by condoning the piracy that is supporting them. Go figure.
 
I think some of the shit the MPAA has pulled is wrong, hell, outrageous even. They have acted like complete douche bags several times. But piracy is wrong and don't even try to justify it because it is just wrong. It is theft and you can try and convince yourself of some bullshit like people go back later and buy legal copies, maybe, maybe there are a very few people that do that, but it sure as hell ain't going to be most people so stop kidding yourself. And no amount of side benefits justify theft. And since I don't like the MPAA and really don't care if they make their money I still have to recognize that the artist who does deserve his cut, won't get it if you aren't paying for his shit, so you can't dodge that one.

So there, if your pirating copyrighted products your just a theif, at least own up to it ffs. Then we can move on to how to free the artists from the evil grip of the industry and the MPAA themselves. We all know they need new business models and it's been slowly changing, those old bastards are reluctant to take any risks. But it is changing and the artists are the ones that hold the keys to this. Without contracts the MPAA looses rights to the work. That is where you have to start, the artists have to work with the up and coming talent, they have to invest themselves into raising a generation of free market talent and we have to be ready to support them with our money buy forking over our bucks for what they produce.

Now before one of you attacks me for my puritanical comments keep in mind, I never claimed I wasn't guilty myself. Of course I also reserve the right to claim this is not a confession either. All I am saying is a spade is a spade, it is what it is. If you don't pay for it, and the ones who own it didn't give it to you, then you stole it. At least have the nutz to be honest about it :D
This is my feeling too. I'm guilty myself too, but one thing I have never done is to defend piracy. It is just wrong to justify it in any way. Like I said earlier, it's a victimless crime. People don't get worked up over it. Piracy only benefits instead of hurt so it's accepted.

Now we might get all upset over how draconian MPAA goes after people. Me too. However, I'm now a proponent of punishment not befitting the crime. Meaning a much more harsher punishment on everything. The NY biker incident. I think all those bikers should be terminated. Instead they will just get a slap on the wrist at the most.
 
Like I said earlier, it's a victimless Crime.

Somehow, somewhere between A and B, we don't actually agree as much as you seem to think.
First, it is not a victimless crime, at a minimum the artists are victims of theft and the same is true of the the industry that is involved in creating the actual work, recording studios, etc. Even distribution and retail looses money so there are victims.

People don't get worked up over it.
The people doing the stealing don't get worked up over it. The complacent "don't give a shits" don't get worked up over it. The people who think the artists make too much money anyway don't get worked up over it. I would bet the people who are actually loosing money and being stolen from would not agree.

Piracy only benefits instead of hurt so it's accepted.
The only people who are benefiting are the thieves. And the only "higher good" that might come from piracy is that in order to change how things are done, in order to stop or minimize piracy, the industry might come up with new business models that are actually fair all the way around.
 
Copyright infringement may be a bit of a muddy concept in the US, but it's not the same legal concept as theft.
 
Back
Top