Online film piracy cuts into industry profit
It is interesting that nowhere in
this whole article about a study concluding that the Motion Picture industry is harmed by “Internet piracy” does the reporter ever mention that the study itself was sponsored by the Motion Picture Association of America (who's CEO is quoted liberally in the article, including the statement: “It's getting clear -- alarmingly clear, I might add -- that we are in the midst of the possibility of Armageddon”).
The article goes on to say:
“Valenti worries that digitally pilfered film copies -- packaged into file sizes that can fit on and be burned to a standard CD or DVD, then traded, shared or sold -- will not only undercut box-office sales, but erode the lucrative rental market.”
This is the same Jack Valenti who, in
1982 testimony before the U.S. Congress, said:
“But now we are facing a very new and a very troubling assault on our fiscal security, on our very economic life and we are facing it from a thing called the video cassette recorder and its necessary companion called the blank tape. And it is like a great tidal wave just off the shore. This video cassette recorder and the blank tape threaten profoundly the life-sustaining protection, I guess you would call it, on which copyright owners depend, on which film people depend, on which television people depend and it is called copyright.”
Come to your own conclusions.
