You Lied

Hollywood laid much of the blame for illegal movie downloading on college students. Now, it says its math was wrong. Translation: they lied.

In a 2005 study it commissioned, the Motion Picture Association of America claimed that 44 percent of the industry's domestic losses came from illegal downloading of movies by college students, who often have access to high-bandwidth networks on campus.

The MPAA has used the study to pressure colleges to take tougher steps to prevent illegal file-sharing and to back legislation currently before the House of Representatives that would force them to do so. The truth though, having come clean to education groups, is that a "human error" in that survey caused it to get the number wrong.

It now blames college students for about 15 percent of revenue loss.

Could the human error have been the motivation of the MPAA to make their point? Can you imagine what would happen if other facets of life were so erroneously informed?

The MPAA says that's still significant, and justifies a major effort by colleges and universities to crack down on illegal file-sharing - but not at all close to their claim. Truly, this does not bode well for research firm LEK, who made the initial report. I predict a drop in their earnings this next quarter.

The MPAA can still go fuck itself, along side the RIAA, as they fabricate data and cry piracy is destroying their industry, when it's really an inferior product.