MPAA Admits To Huge "Mistake" About College Downloading Problem

Joe Moore · Jan 23, 2008

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j33CBI8sUdc5ni7RlxSj5SIEc2mwD8UB6S0O2

That's a pretty big "mistake". 15% (which I still believe is a miscalculation) is a huge step down from 44%.

Hollywood laid much of the blame for illegal movie downloading on college students. Now, it says its math was wrong.

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.

The MPAA has used the study to pressure colleges to take tougher steps to prevent illegal file-sharing and to back legislation currently before the House of Representatives that would force them to do so.

But now the MPAA, which represents the U.S. motion picture industry, has told education groups a "human error" in that survey caused it to get the number wrong. It now blames college students for about 15 percent of revenue loss.

The MPAA says that's still significant, and justifies a major effort by colleges and universities to crack down on illegal file-sharing. But Mark Luker, vice president of campus IT group Educause, says it doesn't account for the fact that more than 80 percent of college students live off campus and aren't necessarily using college networks. He says 3 percent is a more reasonable estimate for the percentage of revenue that might be at stake on campus networks.

"The 44 percent figure was used to show that if college campuses could somehow solve this problem on this campus, then it would make a tremendous difference in the business of the motion picture industry," Luker said. The new figures prove "any solution on campus will have only a small impact on the industry itself."

The original report, by research firm LEK, claims the U.S. motion picture industry lost $6.1 billion to piracy worldwide, with most of the losses overseas. It identified the typical movie pirate as a male aged 16-24. MPAA said in a statement that no errors had been found in the study besides the percentage of revenue losses that could be attributed to college students, but that it would hire a third party to validate the numbers.

"We take this error very seriously and have taken strong and immediate action to both investigate the root cause of this problem as well as substantiate the accuracy of the latest report," the group said in a statement.

Terry Hartle, vice president of the American Council on Education, which represents higher education in Washington, said the mistakes showed the entertainment industry has unfairly targeted college campuses.

"Illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing is a society-wide problem. Some of it occurs at college s and universities but it is a small portion of the total," he said, adding colleges will continue to take the problem seriously, but more regulation isn't necessary.
Click to expand...

SPLIT LIP · Jan 23, 2008

Foster · Jan 23, 2008

Obviously they weren't statistics majors.

Prisoner1138 · Jan 23, 2008

Sounds like this is an attempt to not get lumped in with the RIAA after that interview where one of their representatives made it seem like they thought the whole point of some people going to college was to pirate videos and music.

Lord Of Tetris · Jan 23, 2008

Does that mean my 3 friends, who have paid (respectively) $5000, $5000, and $10,000 to the MPAA for downloading "My Humps," get a 44% refund?

(tone: sarcastic, numbers: real)

darkmgmstr · Jan 23, 2008

CdnShockwave · Jan 23, 2008

I blame the parents. After all, you can't be telling young children it's good to share!

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MPAA Admits To Huge "Mistake" About College Downloading Problem

Joe Moore Is Not Jim... Administrator

SPLIT LIP My personal sense of scale

Foster Haslab Unicron Backer #10 Veteran

Prisoner1138 TFW2005 Supporter

Lord Of Tetris Well-Known Member

darkmgmstr Blue Lantern Corps Member

CdnShockwave The Prince of Poses TFW2005 Supporter

Log in or Sign up

MPAA Admits To Huge "Mistake" About College Downloading Problem

Joe Moore Is Not Jim... Administrator

SPLIT LIP My personal sense of scale

Foster Haslab Unicron Backer #10 Veteran

Prisoner1138 TFW2005 Supporter

Lord Of Tetris Well-Known Member

darkmgmstr Blue Lantern Corps Member

CdnShockwave The Prince of Poses TFW2005 Supporter

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