In 2005, the Motion Picture Association of America did a study where it claimed to find that college students account for 44% of the losses that the movie industry incurs, thanks to the illegal downloading of pirated films over high-speed campus networks. That figure is more like 15% due to a “human error,” according to the MPAA. That’s a pretty big difference. What’s more, that figure may actually be closer to 3%.
What’s not taken into account is that many students live off campus. Mark Luker, vice president of IT group Educause, says that “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,” according to the Associated Press.
“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.”
Whatever the real number, let’s not forget that the losses are in NO WAY due to the industry constantly remaking movies that were popular in the 1970s instead of actually putting out a newly-written movie once in awhile.
MPAA admits mistake on downloading study [AP/Yahoo! News]