MPAA's Turn To Mislead With Statistics

from the let's-look-at-this-carefully... dept

Just a day after the BSA came out with their misleading report on software "piracy", the MPAA needed to follow suit by releasing their own misleading study on the impact of movie downloads. On the numerical side, this is really a survey, so they're not making up numbers... just conclusions. They found that 50% of people they surveyed claimed to have downloaded "copyrighted content" last year. First off, that's a ridiculous question. We've all downloaded copyrighted content. If you visit just about any website you've downloaded "copyrighted content." All text in the US is automatically given a copyright upon being written, and by visiting the page you're "downloading" that copyrighted content. In other words, the other 50% of people who claimed they hadn't downloaded copyrighted content simply don't realize they have. Obviously, the study is more focused on whether or not people downloaded unauthorized copyrighted content. For that, the market is mostly in music, but the MPAA doesn't break out the percentage who only downloaded movies because that would show not too many people had. Instead, they lump in music and movies to make this seem like a bigger problem. Then, the real tricks start. They claim that, of those who downloaded movies, 17% claim they went to fewer movies and 26% claim they bought fewer DVDs. Thus, in their minds, such unauthorized downloading is clearly bad for the industry. Period. End of study. End of thought process. Except they forget that this also means 83% are saying even though they download they're not going to fewer movies, and it's a good bet that plenty are seeing more movies. As we've pointed out plenty of times in the past, going to the movies is often seen as a social experience, and many people downloading movies are doing it either to check it out or because they're huge fans -- not to avoid paying to see it. Is it likely that some people are avoiding paying for movies? Absolutely, but that's not the only impact, and the amount of money the movie industry has been bringing in lately suggests they're doing just fine. If the movie industry had any analytical ability whatsoever, they'd stop worrying so much about downloads, and work on making the social movie going experience more enjoyable, to make it so people wanted to go out and experience the movie in the theater even when the movie was available for less elsewhere.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Master, 8 Jul 2004 @ 7:18pm

    No Subject Given

    There's lies, damn lies, and then statistics.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Bushi, 8 Jul 2004 @ 8:21pm

    No Subject Given

    MPAA lies make MOrbo's tummy hurt.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mikester, 9 Jul 2004 @ 9:52am

    Why?...

    Personally, I've only ever downloaded a movie once and that was about three years ago - and I never did watch it. Who wants to sit passively at their computer desk for 2+ hours?
    Yet I very rarely ever go to the theater any more. Why? Because it's way to frickin' expensive. Ticket prices have sky-rocketed over the past few years yet the MPAA believes that I'm not going because I'm downloading. It especially bugs be when I hear that just broke the record for most money (on opening day, over the weekend, on a Tuesday afternoon, etc.) - no kidding! It's 12 bucks to go see a movie today when it was only 6 four years ago. It's pretty easy to break records at this pace.

    We also almost never buy movies and rarely rent them (from a store) since we got digital cable, rather we'll order a pay-per view every now and then (haven't tried the on-demand service yet).

    OK, I'll get off the soapbox now ;)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Frank, 9 Jul 2004 @ 1:17pm

      Re: Why?...

      What pushed me over the edge was when they started running actual commercials (for cars and such, not just movie previews) before feature presentations. I think it's completely ridiculous to pay a premium for a theater viewing if I'm going to be subject to forced advertising on top of that.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2004 @ 5:25pm

        Re: Why?...

        You know, I actually kind of like the idea of advertising in the cinema... providing they only do it before the advertised start time of the movie.

        It gives you something to watch/talk about while waiting for the movie to start. Since I live in a crazy area where you often have to get into the movie 20-30 minutes before it starts to get a halfway decent seat its nice to have something to do for 20 minutes. And they are usually somewhat decent commercials.

        A local regal cinema has this program they run before hand called "the twenty" or something like that. It actually not bad, although it seems to have some heavy NBC (I think thats what it is) sponsorship. They show short "the making of" clips and new TV show clips and usually an interview with some star. All in all not too bad.

        of course I would prefer to be able to live somewhere that I can just walk in to the theatre right at the start time. but hey what can you do.

        link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.