It’s about time. The MPAA has been quick in the past to blame piracy on everyone from college students to little old grannies, and now for the first time they’ve been forced to admit they were lying. Actually, they’re claiming they made a data entry error, but whatever excuses they want to wave around for what they’ve been doing, the fact is that the MPAA has been feeding us all misinformation about the piracy problem, misinformation which conveniently made their case for a clampdown on consumer freedom stronger.
HR reports that the MPAA has been forced to admit to Congress that their conclusions regarding the participation of college students in piracy are all wrong. They’ve been pushing around a 2005 study which says that a whopping 44% of all domestic losses to piracy are directly attributable to college students. That number is a lie. The MPAA, under pressure, now admits it’s really only 15%. Of course it’s the MPAA that’s saying it, so it’s hard to know if you can even believe it’s that much. They seem to be prone to exaggeration, don’t they?
So if that figure was wrong, how many of their other wild, screaming claims might be the result of a “data entry” error? For instance it wasn’t long ago they were pushing the notion that it was Canada which was responsible for most of the world’s piracy. Now it’s college students. The MPAA seems to be ready to blame piracy on whoever it’s convenient to blame depending on what sort of restrictions they’re trying to cajole the government into reacting. Well for once they’ve been caught.
Say goodbye to whatever credibility they had left. Maybe they should shut up, quit ramming themselves up the ass of consumers and creative talent with out of control copyright enforcement, and instead stick to what they’re supposed to be doing: rating movies. G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17. MPAA, that’s all we want from you.
