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Record Box Office Indicates MPAA 'Piracy Problem' Hot Air
Kinescope writes "The motion picture industry has said that its profits are at risk due to piracy, but a record-setting 2007 box office has some wondering if the industry is crying 'wolf.' Last year, the US box office totaled $9.63 billion, a 5.4% increase over 2006. 'Piracy is so bad, according to the MPAA, that we need special legislation to target the dastardly college pirates who are destroying the business. It's so bad that Weekly Reader subscribers will learn about the $7 billion a year "lost" to Internet piracy. It's so bad that the MPAA wants ISPs to ignore years of common carrier law and the promises of "safe harbor" and start filtering their traffic, looking for copyright violations. The real world isn't quite this simple, of course. It turns out that the MPAA's college numbers were off by a factor of three, a revelation that came after years of hiding the study's methodology but continuing to lobby Congress with its numbers.'"
$9.63 million, a 5.4% increase over 2006
How about "billion" instead? (It'll probably get corrected.)
Well, either that, or piracy has indeed PWNED the movie industry. Bad. Hah.
I like basketball!!1!
The legislation enacted was almost EXACTLY what was requested by Gov. Schwarzenegger... and STILL they cry 'Blame Canada!'
It's the Canadians' fault, with their beady little eyes and flapping heads so full of lies.
Klingon programs don't timeshare, they battle for supremacy.
Am I the only one who feels like the industry position is akin to a restaurant owner trying to figure out a way to charge some customers for using excess salt, and for grabbing two mints rather than just one?
How DARE you imply that anything other than those Evil Content Pirates(tm) is responsible for any downturn (or not a big enough increase) in our profits!!!!
</MPAA>
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
If we ever were to watch only the good movies, they'd be out of business before you can say landschaftsarchitektonisches.
My 0.02 cents
... make it a business to create fiction?
Then I guess they'll be in business indefinately?