MPAA Still Clueless; Claims Anti-Piracy Is Why Dark Knight Had A Huge Opening

from the are-these-people-serious? dept

Last week, we wrote about how the massively successful opening of The Dark Knight showed (once again) how little an impact "piracy" has on movies. But don't tell the movie industry that. The LA Times is running a bizarre article with movie industry folks claiming that their anti-piracy efforts are the real reason the movie was so successful in the theaters. Never mind the awesome reviews. Never mind the fact that many people wanted to see the movie in IMAX (which you can't replicate at home). Never mind the fact that going out to the movies is still a social experience. Never mind the fact that the movie was available online soon after it was released (despite what the article claims).

Instead, the movie guys rely on a single anecdote: the story about how the Hulk movie from a few summers ago leaked online, got terrible reviews and then no one went to see it. The industry uses that to claim that a leaked movie does tons of damage to box office sales, but they play down the importance of the bad reviews. If you make a bad movie, then yes, word of mouth will stop people from going. But if you make a good movie -- and most critics agree The Dark Knight is an excellent movie -- then word of mouth will make more people want to go out and experience it in the theater. About the only thing the LA Times article shows is just how much money the MPAA wasted in its efforts to keep the movie from appearing online prior to release. For that, it maybe saved them a few hours (much less than claimed in the article), which probably had almost no impact on ticket sales. Until the movie industry realizes that it's the experience they're selling, beyond just the content, it sounds like they're going to be throwing a lot more money down this anti-piracy hole than they're actually "losing" to piracy.

Filed Under: batman, dark knight, movies, piracy
Companies: mpaa

TorrentSpy Appeals Lawsuit Over MPAA Getting Access To Its Emails

from the not-done-yet dept

While TorrentSpy may have shut down and lost its copyright infringement lawsuit against the MPAA, it's still appealing a separate issue: whether the MPAA broke the law in hiring a guy to break into TorrentSpy's email server and forward emails to the MPAA. The MPAA got away with playing dumb when this issue first came up, claiming it assumed the guy they hired had legitimate access to all of the emails he was handing over -- though, that seems highly questionable.

Filed Under: mpaa, spying
Companies: mpaa, torrentspy

MPAA Worried That People Don't Know A Gun Can't Shoot Through Your TV

from the how-nice-of-them dept

Apparently the MPAA is quite worried that people watching a movie trailer might not understand that a gun pointed at the screen can't actually shoot through the screen. The organization is forcing preview trailers that show someone pointing a gun directly at the screen to actually change the video or cut that scene out of the ad. As the report at the AV Club asks, is the MPAA worried that someone from a century ago who's never seen TV or a movie is going to suddenly show up and freak out? Anyone who's seen the movie This Film Is Not Yet Rated knows that the MPAA works in mysterious ways, but this just seems ridiculous.

Filed Under: advertisements, guns, movies, mpaa, trailers
Companies: mpaa

Dark Knight Proves Again: Give People A Reason To Go To The Movies And They Will

from the silly-MPAA dept

While the MPAA still wants you to believe that movie piracy is a huge problem, it's never quite able to explain how the movies that are most likely to be available for free online also happen to be the biggest box office winners. The latest example is with The Dark Knight, the latest Batman installment. It's getting tremendous reviews and had a record opening week, despite the fact that you could download it online. This isn't a surprise. Piracy has never really been a threat to the movie business -- which has always been more about selling the experience than the movie itself. And, things are even better with The Dark Knight because it's actually designed to look amazing on IMAX screens, which is an experience you just can't replicate at home. Somehow, though, we doubt the MPAA will give up its pointless claims about the "threat" of movie downloads.

Filed Under: batman, dark knight, movies, mpaa, piracy
Companies: mpaa

MPAA Explains Why Proof Shouldn't Be Necessary In Copyright Infringement Cases

from the who-needs-evidence? dept

The entertainment industry has been pushing for courts to rule that simply "making available" content for file sharing is the equivalent of copyright infringement. There's a big problem with this, however. Copyright covers a few different things, and the key ones under which most people are charged is unauthorized "distribution." But, if there's no evidence that a file was actually shared, it's difficult to see how distribution actually occurred. Basically, those who say making available isn't distribution are simply saying that for someone to be charged with unauthorized distribution there should at least be proof that distribution occurred. In most (though not all) cases, the judges have seen this and ruled that simply "making available" is not distribution.

In the one high profile case that a judge ruled otherwise, the infamous Jammie Thomas case, the judge has now admitted that he may have made a "manifest error of law" and has asked parties to file briefs to give their thoughts on the making available issue. The MPAA has taken the opportunity to basically say that it's too difficult to find actual proof, and therefore they shouldn't have to do so:

"Mandating such proof could thus have the pernicious effect of depriving copyright owners of a practical remedy against massive copyright infringement in many instances.... It is often very difficult, and in some cases, impossible, to provide such direct proof when confronting modern forms of copyright infringement."

In other words, since it's difficult to get proof, we shouldn't have to provide proof. This is especially problematic given how flimsy the "proof" that the entertainment industry already relies on.

Filed Under: copyright, making available, proof
Companies: mpaa

MPAA Asks FCC To Allow It To Block DVR Recording Of Certain Movies

from the winning-fans-all-over dept

The entertainment industry lobbyists are basically working ever possible angle to get more "control" over its content. We've already seen how they mess with the legislation process and the international treaty process, and now they're trying to use the FCC as well (not for the first time, either). The latest is that the MPAA is asking the FCC to remove certain restrictions that forbid it from blocking the recording of certain movies and from downgrading the ability to record certain movies. Basically, the MPAA is asking the FCC let it make use of "Selectable Output Control" to keep its rapidly disappearing "release windows" business model possible.

As you probably know, the movie business has worked for many years on the model of "release windows," where films first show up in theaters, then at special locations (hotels/airplanes), followed by video, then PPV, cable and finally network TV. This is a legacy of an old business model, where the studio had a lot more control over content -- but it makes less and less sense these days, in a world where people have a lot more options for their entertainment time and money. These "windows" have been shrinking, because that's exactly what the customers demand -- and it actually has worked out well for the studios, because with shorter windows they actually get more benefit from a single advertising campaign plus consumers are happier since they have more options about how they consume the content. But the industry is so focused on these windows, that when anyone dares to upset the norm, they freak out.

The latest situation is because the studios want to keep this totally unnecessary window process in place. So they're asking the FCC to let it either degrade recordings or block recordings of movies if they occur before the movies go to DVD/video rental. The MPAA reasoning behind this is pure bunk, claiming that it would encourage more people to buy HDTVs, speeding up the transition to digital TV. There are multiple inaccuracies in this claim by the studios. First, while HDTV's are digital, one does not need to upgrade to HDTV to switch to digital TV. More importantly, basically, the studios are pretending that it's someone else's fault that they're unwilling to put good HDTV content on TV. They're basically saying "oh, if you let us block copying, then we'll put much more good content on TV." That's hard to believe for a variety of reasons. There's plenty of demand for content on TV, and if the studios aren't willing to put on good content, then others are finding plenty of ways to fill in the gaps.

Furthermore, there's nothing stopping the studios from releasing movies earlier. Claiming that they need this extra copy protection is a myth. The copy protection won't actually stop copies from being made. "Professional" pirates will easily get around the protection schemes. The only people who won't are your average home family user, who the industry is trying to screw over by making them pay over and over again for the same content. Besides, even the FCC knows that the MPAA's argument is incorrect. In its own report, it stated:

"In particular, we are concerned that selectable output control would harm those 'early adopters' whose DTV equipment only has component analog inputs for high definition display, placing these consumers at risk of being completely shut off from the high-definition content they expect to receive."

In other words, for every person that "more HDTV content" encourages to upgrade, you're probably going to get more than one person pissed off that their DVR can't record that content. Hopefully the FCC tells the MPAA that its regulatory power isn't designed to let it prop up an obsolete business model.

Filed Under: copyright, fcc, mpaa, soc
Companies: fcc, mpaa

MPAA Gets Two More Sites To Settle For Merely Linking To Infringing Content

from the inducement? dept

The MPAA has been aggressively suing websites that merely link to infringing content claiming that linking is "inducement" to infringe -- which appears to be an attempt to stretch the Supreme Court's Grokster decision beyond its intended meaning. However, when staring down the barrel of a big Hollywood Studio lawsuit, it's no surprise that some sites cave. The MPAA has happily announced that two more such lawsuits have been settled. These are actually consent judgments, meaning both sides agreement to the judgment, but also likely worked out a separate settlement. That way the MPAA gets to claim huge fines found in the judgment, but which the real settlement was probably much less.

Filed Under: copyright, inducement, linking, movies, mpaa
Companies: mpaa

How The RIAA/MPAA Helped Catapult The Pirate Bay Into Being One Of The World's Most Popular Sites

from the nice-work,-guys dept

It's been almost exactly two years since the entertainment industry had the US government push Swedish officials into shutting down The Pirate Bay. At the time, entertainment officials went on and on about what a "significant blow" the takedown was against all those folks using the site for unauthorized copies of entertainment content. Of course, as we all know, the site was back up within days -- and thanks to all the media attention about the raid and the takedown, the site's traffic shot upwards to the point that it's now considered to be one of the top 100 sites in terms of traffic. Quite a "significant blow," huh?

Filed Under: bittorrent, file sharing, significant blow
Companies: mpaa, pirate bay, riaa

RIAA, MPAA In Denial About The Death Of DRM

from the good-luck-with-that dept

As a bunch of you are submitting, at a panel discussion down in LA, an RIAA representative claimed not only was DRM not dead, but that it was making a comeback. However, the statements show a fundamental misunderstanding of what's happening in the marketplace. RIAA technology guy David Hughes made this statement:

"I made a list of the 22 ways to sell music, and 20 of them still require DRM."

Well, David, I just made a list of 22 ways to sell transportation mechanisms, and 20 of them still require a buggy whip -- but it doesn't mean anyone will buy them. Then, even worse was the statement from the MPAA's Fritz Attaway:

"We need DRM to show our customers the limits of the license they have entered into with us."

Well, there's your problem Fritz. The second you focus on how to limit your customers, you've lost them. No one wants to be limited these days. They want to be able to do what they want and they will reward those who allow them to do so. Treating your customers as people to be limited (i.e., people who you offer less value to) pretty much guarantees that they'll go elsewhere.

Filed Under: david hughes, denial, drm, fritz attaway, mpaa, riaa
Companies: mpaa, riaa

TorrentSpy, Though Out Of Business, To Appeal Massive Fine

from the might-as-well-fight dept

Following yesterday's $110 million fine against TorrentSpy, ostensibly for copyright infringement, but really for destruction of evidence, we figured that the whole thing would drop, as the company has already shut down. But... not so fast. The company has decided to appeal, claiming that the result was a Hollywood PR stunt. Given the way the MPAA tried to claim that this ruling acted as a warning to other torrent trackers, he has a point. Still, given the destruction of evidence in this case, it may not be the model case on these issues. There are plenty of other cases, such as those against The Pirate Bay (in Sweden) and isoHunt that will be more important long term.

Filed Under: appeals, bittorrent, copyright, torrent tracking
Companies: mpaa, torrentspy