the MPAA - how wrong can you be?

given both the vehemence and certainty or Mr. Valenti's assertions, and the enormous financial investment by the Motion Picture Association in lobbying governments to protect them from the evolution of communication technology over the years, a brief review of their concerns seems in order...

THE MPAA ON CABLE TELEVISION

"A huge parasite in the marketplace, feeding and fattening itself off of local television stations and copyright owners of copyrighted material."


alas, despite their best efforts, cable television's evil tentacles spread across North America...the result?


Turner Classic Movies TCM
Sundance Channel
Documentary Channel
Independent Film Channel IFC
Movieola
MovieTime
DUSK
Showcase Action
Showcase Diva
Silver Screen Classics
Encore Avenue 1
HBO Canada
HBO Canada HD
Movie Central 1, 2, 3
Movie Central HD 1
Super Channel 1, 2, 3, 4
Super Channel HD 1
Super Channel HD 2
The Movie Network
The Movie Network HD
Morepix
MExcess
MFest
Mpix

...in addition to the movies that are shown on traditional 'mixed" entertainment channels, these are the 24 dedicated movie channels available where i live (not counting adult movie channels and one that shows movies in Mandarin).

the Verdict?

WRONG!

THE MPAA ON VIDEO CASSETTE RECORDERS

"I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston Strangler is to the woman home alone".

"We are going to bleed and bleed and hemorrhage, unless this Congress..."

Despite Valenti's apocalyptic visions of blood,
the home video market ultimately came to be
the mainstay of movie studio revenues throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, until the DVD.

At it's peak, the industry would sell about 70 million cassettes for rentals and 600 million cassettes for home viewing each year.

VCRs and their power pellets, the videotapes, did not destroy the movie industry. In reality, they probably saved it.

the Verdict?

WRONG!

THE MPAA ON INTERNET 'PIRACY'

Q: Can Internet piracy be contained?

A: It costs us $3.5 billion a year, but it's not going to go unchecked. We have the best brains working on this. I'm optimistic that in the next eight months to two years, we'll have this thing under control.
Jack Valenti, USA Today June 2004


well, as of 2010, they don't seem to have this one licked...so once again...

the Verdict?

WRONG!

THE MPAA ON INTERNET 'PIRACY' 2

“We’re fighting our own terrorist war
against people who would pirate movies online.”



...clearly, the war on people 'pirating' continues- but based on the industry's attitude and tactics in the past, the odds are better than 50/50 that they might be

WRONG!

...again.

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