MPA and RIAA threaten more universities
Only 10 days into the New Year and the two groups are at it again. On behalf of the major record companies, the Recording Industry Association of America has sent yet another (the twelfth) wave of 407 pre-litigation settlement letters to 18 universities nationwide. Each pre-litigation settlement letter informs the school of a forthcoming copyright infringement suit against one of its students or personnel and requests that university administrators forward the letter to allow the individuals the opportunity to promptly resolve the matter and avoid a lawsuit. Meanwhile, as part of the Motion Picture Association’s anti-piracy initiative Operation Blackout, which runs through the holiday season till the end of January 2008, a team of 22 officers from ECOTEC and MPA representatives raided two distribution centers and 11 retail outlets located in the notorious Banmor area in Bangkok. During the raid, over 25,000 optical discs were seized and five individuals were arrested.
Once again, they also released a whole bunch of stupid statistics:
- a survey by Student Monitor from 2006: more than half of college students download music and movies illegally
- Market research firm NPD: college students alone accounted for more than 1.3 billion illegal music downloads in 2006
- Institute for Policy Innovation: global theft of sound recordings cost the U.S. economy $12.5 billion in lost revenue and more than 71,000 jobs and $2 billion in wages to U.S. workers per year
The MPA also cites losses – MPA studios have reportedly lost US$6.1 billion to worldwide piracy in 2005. About US$2.4 billion was lost to bootlegging, US$1.4 billion to illegal copying and US$2.3 billion to Internet piracy. Of the US$6.1 billion in lost revenue to the studios, approximate $1.2 billion came from piracy across the Asia-Pacific region, while piracy in the U.S. accounted for $1.3 billion. Why they always assume people would actually buy ALL stuff they download…
Source: MPAA, Neowin
Comments(46)
RIAA is so stupid. They think getting people one by one is going to “stop” piracy.
Keep Dreaming biatches!:)
Isn’t it supposed to be spelled MPAA?
@ spellchecker
MPAA stands for Motion Picture Association of America. “The MPA” just means “The Motion Picture Association”. Either way, it’s just more harassment crap aimed at kids and worse, using their schools to help them extort money.
@gavrielle
I know they’re the same thing I just find it strange that the source is MPAA and the title reads different.
Why don’t they take into account the money they make from piracy ?? for instance i downloaded and watched I Am Legend, thought it was good so went to the cinema with my misses and paid to watch it…(premium seats too) if i hadn’t seen it on the small screen I wouldn’t have gone to see it at the cinema and my girlfriend certinally wouldn’t..
I’ve also recommended the film to my friends who don’t download so they will get even more punters in the cinema and make more money
I think I saw a survey which said that downloading actually
went UP the more the MPA and RIAA screw with people. Every time they shut down one site, 5 are waiting to take it’s place. If people go back underground to d/l (newgroups , ftp ect)
they actually get MORE content, so I’ll go back to newsgroups if need be.
What a joke. They actually believe that if piracy was impossible, all those people would have purchased the CD’s and DVD’s at full purchase price. They’ve forgotten that their industry has churned out twice as many movies in 2007 compared with 1995 (or thereabouts). People are not going to go twice as much to the movies as in 1995 and consequently double their movie-going budget. Especially when you consider that, compared with 1995, people can now entertain/amuse themselves with impressive video games, mobile phone texting/conversation, internet and instant messaging, cheap life-style shopping at the mall, and so forth. That is the movie industry’s competition – not just the money, but the free time available. And despite all this additional competition for my time/money the movie and music people still want me to pay high prices and even twice as much as 12 years ago? Puh-leeeeeeeeeeze!!!
They need to find a way of infusing the movie-going and DVD/CD experiences with REAL value. After all, those experiences have not changed one iota from the beginning. Too many fat cats in this industry think they have some kind of divine right to keep serving up the same experience year after year and charge us high prices for it. When will they ever learn?
Not saying I condone their behavior, but I would have to agree totally with them when it comes to commercial or personal gain from the scene…The groups do what they do to gain notoriety and reputation among fellow pirates. In return for reputation, pirates gain free software and media. Selling any of that is foolish and tarnishes the reputation of the entire scene and downloading community.
As for the actual university issue, I doubt any college dormies are going to download anything to sell it…They download it for personal use, which is completely justifiable…
“and more than 71,000 jobs” – LOL
I don’t see the reason to get more workers to stand around machines duplicating higher number of discs or legal Internet downloads. Do you?
True statement would sound like: “producers/directors/investors lost the amount matching 71,000 jobs”. That is a big amount! I suppose, most of them will now not be able to buy property on Miami Beach. I am heart broken.
those statistics are more comical than anything, they can suck balls and stop crying about it, it’ll never stop
Oh yes, now i got it! When they say 71,000 jobs lost, they are thinking of servants that producers/directors/investors will not be able to hire for their private needs. Such as: butlers, drivers, sexy escorts, kitchen, serving and cleaning crews, private day care and music classes for their so talented kids, and much more. I mean, imagine living without all those so needed necessities? That is right outrageous!
how do they lose money if say the music/movies aren’t bought? isn’t it more like profit +0 from piraters, while +x for people who buy? where’s the loss?
We or most of us buy the odd one to subsidized the already over inflated retail prices.Dont we?
Crikey! This article about piracy and downloading has really made me think!
Think about downloading some new stuff I mean.
“$12.5 billion in lost revenue ” wow, i almost feel sorry for them.. just almost..
@spellchecker
The author first states, “Meanwhile, as part of the Motion Picture Association’s…” and then refers back to “the MPA” as he continues the progression towards his conclusion. If the author, in referencing back to the immediately previous statement did not use “the MPA” as the abbreviation, it would be considered grammatically incorrect.
Amazingly, it seems the author of the article actually went to school for journalism – or at the very least took a course in professional writing!
The same can’t be said for all those involved in that “creative” accounting summarized in the article. 71,000 jobs likely refers to some nebulous mathematical equation involving pay rates for minimum wage employees divided into the bloated amount they MPA and RIA are allowed to claim as damages or lost income under the law.
More likely, the money not being spent on music and video is being spent in other ways, with jobs and revenue still being created, just not through what trickles back down to consumers from the AAs and their over paid executives.
Bear in mind that many of the students the AAs are targeting doubtless spend the money they save on luxury items such as records and films to pay for books and tuition – not to mention those nifty school mugs, tee shirts, caps and jackets. If the universities allow themselves to be used by the AAs in this fashion then they should also be aware of the money flowing out of their campus book stores and other local venues such as restaurants that count on student business, will flow right into the AAs coffers.
Wasn’t 2007 a record breaking year for the movie industry, so many films grossed over $400,000,000.
Bourne, Transformers, spiderman 3, POTC 3, i am legend, harry potter, shrek and the rat______ ( the rat film).
This is just a few from top of my head, so it shows the figures in the article above must be made up.
“Institute fo3r Policy Innovation: global theft of sound recordings cost the U.S. economy $12.5 billion in lost revenue and more than 71,000 jobs and $2 billion in wages to U.S. workers per year”
I am sick of seeing this typ of statistic where the asumption is that each and every mp3 transfered = 1 sale lost.
Pure bulls**t.
That’s really funny, those statistics, is like i give something free and i get a lot of people, if i start to calculate, what if i charge ‘em 1 buck for i get millions but is ridiculous, if you charge for something less than the half of the people is goin’ to get it, there are movies that doesn’t deserve to be seen on the big screen, and not even pay for it_
“Once again, they also released a whole bunch of stupid statistics”
Martin, things like this comment is why P2P advocates aren’t taken seriously. Why are these statistics stupid? How can statistics be stupid? These are facts, and you should answer them by throwing your own facts against them. If you can’t, it just makes you the one who is blowing in the wind.
It’s the same with the Pirate Bay. All they do is offend, instead of explaining or giving statistics of their own. All I ever hear is “piracy doesn’t influence sales”, but I never see evidence except maybe ONE measly piece of research.
If you people really want to see P2P acceptable, then do something constructive instead of always crying wolf. Otherwise shut the h*ll up and just keep posting/seeding/downloading, ignoring those MPA and RIAA people.
@ desperado
January 11th, 2008 | 12:30
I agree, its not like people who download music/movies would actually go out and buy ALL of them if they couldn’t download them.
Why they always assume people would actually buy ALL stuff they download…???
well because othewise many ppl in MPA and RIAA would loose a lot of mony and their jobs!!! they have to put out something so that they get their finaces. and there is probobly quite a lot of ppl that got rich on this!!!
I think that in average ppl would buy mybe 2% of all the things they download
but even that is alot!!!
“I think that in average ppl would buy mybe 2% of all the things they download
but even that is alot!!!”
thats a good point. i wouldnt buy everyting i download, but downloading essentially makes me buy nothing, instead of that 2% if the internet didnt exist. i still feel like the things ive done because of downloads (see the 3rd bourne @ cinema after doanloading the first 2, see bands live i hadnt heard of before downloading their albums from a music blog, etc.) more than makes upfor my 2% of lost purchases.
@ 14, i actually lol’d for real.
Cheat for the day: 4 + 7 = 11
look at this list of all the companies that profit from RIAA tactics – http://www.riaa.com/aboutus.php?content_selector=aboutus_members
lots and lots of companies, it’s not just a few people doing this. there are thousands of people profiting, including every employee of all those companies, all of them profiting from a corrupt system.
sad thing is i’ll bet most of those people would deny they’re really a part of it, like “i’m just doing my job”, when they’re chasing down 12 year old girls and their parents, or threatening college kids…
@QuadrupelQ – the stats given by the mpaa are not accurate, so why give them credence? my stats tell me that the mpaa’s members have actually GAINED 46 billion dollars from piracy, due to the free advertising of their products.
We have a similar problem with a society called SGAE in Spain. We had to pay a canon for all the gadgets that could play copyrighted material(sometimes material I hate!! ).
Last week SGAE attacks School Buses because they could play music with their radio(the problem is that they had paid a canon to buy their music player).
You are paying a canon to maintain your private copy rigths without personal profit and SGAE keeps closing P2P webs and threatening all P2P community.
A funny story: Last year SGAE spend 30 millions euros buying a PALACE (http://www.boadilla.com/image/_palacio540.jpg)that will be a new headquarter, SPAIN IS DIFFERENT.
Sorry for my crappy english.
The real problem here is they are attacking college students. They are already in debt to the college, now they make things worse by suing them. They have no shame.
@ 26
jane
January 11th, 2008 | 17:09
That sure is a nice Headquarters!!
P.S.
Your English is ok, only “pay a canon” is not used much. Is that a Spanish term? Something like “pay a fortune” or “[it] costs a packet” might be more appropriate.
@ 27 and 28
Oops, ya am a “canon” is a royalty fee imposed by SGAE. Ignore my rant in the P.S. of #28
MPAA and RIAA are bureaucratic organizations interested in self-preservation. They need us more than we need them.
We are evolving to a digital world where ownership rules will change so that humanity (and thats all humanity and not just a few) can flourish. It’s not a clear path by any means, but we are at the beginning of something great and which can lift living standards and eliminate poverty. Not everything should be locked up – knowledge and the human spirit shoul be should be free.
who cares? I pay super high tuition. the college has more than enough money to cover legal fees and dues.
stupid kids too. dont universities have law students? get them all together, and use them to destroy the MPA and RIAA in the courts! LOL!
“$12.5 billion in lost revenue ”
U.S. spend those money for one week in Iraq.
P.S. forget to say: STEALING Iraqi’s oil!
P.P.S. so it’s ok to steal someone’s oil reserves but it’s not ok to steal someone’s crap movies. makes me sick!
@32 A.Bundy,
One school is doing just that;
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/4630414.html
As for this story; I calculate that since the RIAA and MPA started this crusade against file sharers, I have spent $100,000 worth of my time and energy reading about it. Where do I send the bill?
I’m living proof that every pirated copy doesn’t equal a lost sale. I’ve only had DSL since December 2006. Before that I only had dialup, which made downloading movies completely impractical (I was never much into music). Despite the fact that I had no easy way to pirate movies, I still didn’t buy many, or go to the theater that often. I only own one TV show and one Hollywood movie on DVD (Firefly & Serenity). Every other DVD I own was bought at a local dollar store for $1 each. I think I’ve only gone to see maybe 3 movies in the last 5 years, one of which was using a gift certificate that I was given as a birthday gift.
I think everyone but the mpaa and the riaa can see that
they benefit more than they loose on filesharing..
They must be a bunch of people with no logical sence at all
if they can’t realise the fact that because of filesharing
people get access to movies, music and games that they never would even notice otherwise and never buy, but if you download something and really like it, most people would probably buy it or future releases from the same artist, director etc..
I have to agree with those commenting that downloading doesn’t = lost sale. I have over 500+ cd’s and a pile of actual albums .. since probabaly mid 90’s I have not bought a single cd.
Now prob 50% of my 3tb collection is not from downloading, for years we had “rip parties” and everyone would bring some of their collection and rip and burn. The advent of large portable drives just makes it easier to amass a large MP3 collection. There is ZERO they can do to stop that activity. I havn’t used a P2P client since Napster went down .. most are slow as S&^% and quality is crap.
99% of cd’s now are disposable artists .. they have 1 or 2 good tunes and the rest is filler .. people wised up and that is why Itunes and singles driven services are popular. Why buy a pig if you only want two strips of bacon?
Try all they want their distributuin and profit from media is dead. Media is worthless once it’s digital. I would support and agree to a tax (surcharge) on Blank media, portable hard drives and MP3 players .. that is where they can recoup this lost “profit” .. there is no way anyone 12-40 is going to pay a dime for something they can easily find free and 99c per song is not a fair price.
thanks for reading ..
I could care less abot the MPAA or RIAA
I download music if i want it, i buy it if i really want the whole album, which is pretty rare nowadays, plus i DO pay a surcharge to be allowed to do this, and love this idea.
as for movies, it’s pretty rare that i even see a movie that is worth paying for, nowadays everything is just a ripoff or remake of some older movie, and they expect us to pay for what THEY have STOLEN?
yeah, right!!!
as for games, if i can’t download something i like, i’ll just go back to playing games like idlepimps and runescape for FREE.
apps, now that is a bit different, i would have to pay for some of them… yet there is no actual group like MPAA or anything that actually does anything useful where it actually IS needed.
@QuadrupelQ
Your pathetic attempt to sound intelligent failed, or are you too limited in your thoughts to understand logical proof? Indeed, sir, you fail to realize that hard proof is not necessarily better than logical proof (especially if the physical cant be acquired due to subject controversy). Given that “fact”, one must, therefore, use reason and thought to come to a conclusion, which usually happens subconsciously resulting in a biased-looking comment.
However, since you lack sentient intelligence, allow me to rephrase this in a way so that your meager brain can handle it: “Pull your brain out of your as5 and use it every now and then! Quit trying to sound smart by bashing other people because you cannot fully comprehend what they are thinking.”
when i read this i immediately thought of the south park episode with the music artists. now they cant have their gold shark tanks
@38 JollyRoger,
I’ve found that BitTorrent has pretty good speeds, provided whatever you’re trying to download has enough sources. Note that the speed slowly ramps up. It’s not uncommon to see 3-5K/s at the start, but go up to 320K/s by the middle of the transfer. I only have 3Mb DSL, so that’s as high as I’ve seen it go. eDokeny on the other hand, is slower than snot! Still, I’ve found some things on there that I wasn’t able to find anywhere else.
I personally think the numbers game is gibberish. They cry about the lose, but they don’t take certain variables into consideration such as, population increase, average income and price of their unreasonably priced products. I’m sure they’re making a profit, they just want more of it. So go ahead corporate crackpots and make your potential future costumers pay, it’s not like quality entertainment comes from a fat wallet anyway.
Those f***ing a$$h0le$ would never target students from Harvard University. Why ? Because Harvard University have clearly stated that any attempt to bring forward a lawsuit against any of their students would result in a counter-lawsuit against those |-|0llyw00d a$$licker$.
Harvard University is untouchable.
Check out the profit for I am legend. Now this thin had a grate screener just after its release. If piracy was such a grate threat to them how would they earn Worldwide $461,683,451???
Production cost is 150mil$
Worldwide gross is 461mil$
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Legend_(film)#_note-25
They should start picking up some different points to argue on..
do they never learn, rippers/crackers/hackers/sharers allways find/develop/create new ways to distribute/share stuff on the internet