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MPAA admits incorrectly estimating college piracy losses

23 January 2008 14:08 by Rich "vurbal" Fiscus | 12 comments

The MPAA is now backing away from statistics they began using in 2005 as a bullet point in their legal assault on college campuses. The study which generated the statistics claimed that 44% of their domestic losses due to piracy came from college students. However, the group has now admitted that due to "human error" the real number, which is more like 15%, was exaggerated.

According to Mark Luker who is vice president of Educause, a sort of professional association for entire campus IT departments, the real figure is lower still since the study only accounts for the approximately 20% of students who reside on campus. He estimates the correct figure to be closer to 3%.

"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."

Permalink to this article | Topic: Lawsuits & Legislation

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Police break up large Australian DVD piracy ring (24 January 2008)

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Update: MPAA CEO talks out about American film ban in China (18 December 2007)

MPAA lawyer defends COAA anti-P2P provision (21 November 2007)

Oregon Attorney General takes on RIAA over subpoena (6 November 2007)

MPAA denies connection to MediaDefender (4 November 2007)

MPAA joins Japanese companies in support for amending copyright law (27 October 2007)

MPAA hacker comes clean in interview (22 October 2007)

19 new Universities receive RIAA letters (18 October 2007)

MPAA sues sites for linking to pirated video (28 September 2007)

DRM provider says the technology isn't being used correctly (20 September 2007)

MPAA wants ISP help in combating piracy (18 September 2007)

Embarrassing MediaDefender emails distributed on Bittorent (17 September 2007)

Student's piracy claims not likely to keep information from RIAA (26 August 2007)

iTunes U gets dedicated area within iTunes (30 May 2007)

Congress sends surveys to Universities over piracy concerns (3 May 2007)

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Discuss this article!
mediabob (Member) 23 January 2008 14:46
who the heck would believe an MPAA statistic... theyre lying scum bags [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 23 January 2008 14:50
dies laughing this is why there should be separation of corporation and state.... [ + quote]
mspurloc (Member) 23 January 2008 14:58
How much of my tax money was wasted by this? The MPAA gets law enforcement involved in what the MPAA liars sell as the "MOST SERIOUS CRIME EVER, EVER, EVAAARRRRR!!!!" and I have to pay the damn bill? They should be SUED. They should be ARRESTED and PROSECUTED for false representations made in a warrant, which last time I checked, was a FELONY in some states. [ + quote]
7thsinger (AfterDawn Addict) 23 January 2008 14:58
Man, is it getting deep in here? Or is it just me? "Sir, i would not harm thee for the world, but thou art standing where i'm about to shoot." [ + quote]
wetsparks (Member) 23 January 2008 23:24
*Quote:* ...due to "human error"... I'm sorry, but what?!?!? 44% down to 15% is a pretty big error. The "human error" is more like "we lied and got caught" error. [ + quote]
Blackjax (Member) 24 January 2008 0:00
I think the "good" folks at the mpaa need a few remedial math classes and for the sake of everyone's ribs keep them away from the game show "Are you smarter than a fifth grader?" [ + quote]
ikari (Junior Member) 24 January 2008 19:15
Funny thing is: They won't get in trouble. But I guarantee if it was you or me that made a claim like that, we would be sued and fined until we were penniless and in millions of dollars in debt. [ + quote]
hermes_vb (Senior Member) 27 January 2008 13:18
And in other news MPAA proclaims the Earth is flat... [ + quote]
DDR4life (Junior Member) 27 January 2008 19:36
@hermes_vb "And in other news MPAA proclaims the Earth is flat..." lol. EXTRA! EXTRA! *MPAA proclaims Earth devoid of a spherical nature!* *Statements to the contrary in violation of copyright!* [ + quote]
nobrainer (Inactive) 29 January 2008 12:21
An interesting read about this can be found here: http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/01/29/green *Originally posted by linkage:* The Movie Industry�s 300% Error We also have to admire the MPAA�s arrogance. The MPAA now asserts that college students account for 15 percent rather than 44 percent of the P2P piracy affecting the motion picture industry. However the press release says nothing � not a word � about the source of the other �85 percent� of the P2P piracy that affects the industry�s revenues, the activities of �civilians� who use consumer broadband services. how can they tell how much revenue was lost exactly, who's to say that every person that downloaded a film didn't purchase a real copy once they realised it wasn't complete trash, or didn't purchase it because like much of the big media productions it turned out to be complete talentless rubbish that relied on flashy effects and green screens, in which case this is hollywoods own fault for expecting ppl to continue to purchase worthless inane cow pat films, or would have ever purchased it and the only reason the watch the content was because of it being free because of whatever reason! The BPI Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI. The RIAA Soundexchange Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI. The MPAA Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, DISNEY, PARAMOUNT, FOX. [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 29 January 2008 12:25
kubapolak (Junior Member) 31 January 2008 19:48
this is outrageous and is unacceptable!!! I hope the MPAA gets punished!!!! [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 18 February 2008 2:00
A lawyer for the defence should use this article as a part of their case against the mpaa and riaa. [ + quote]