MPAA “Piracy” Study Flawed and Dangerous, CCIA Says

File Under: News, Copyright

Jan 23, 2008

WASHINGTON -- A 2005 study commissioned by the movie industry inflated drastically a key estimate of the economic cost of on-campus file sharing by students, content industry representatives confessed today. According to press reports, the misleading numbers over-represented the cost of college file sharing by a factor of three.

“These erroneous figures have provided a foundation for flawed policy,” CCIA President & CEO Ed Black said. “This secret study influenced important intellectual property policy decisions.  Now we see why such studies must be transparent, rather than ‘closed-source.’ "

The latest revelation should be no surprise. The motion picture industry and others that comprise Big Content have repeatedly exaggerated the effects of unauthorized copying while simultaneously denying fair-use rights to copy others’ works for research, journalism, discussion and other lawful, personal uses.  CCIA's complaint earlier this year to the Federal Trade Commission provided numerous examples of misrepresentation of the rights of legitimate users. In that complaint, CCIA outlined efforts by some in the copyright industry to suppress and deny fair use rights: <http://www.defendfairuse.org/include/complaint.html>

Also, CCIA’s study Fair Use in the U.S. Economy, by contrast to the recent flawed study, fully disclosed the nature and source of its underlying data.  The CCIA report found that the fair use economy – the sum of economic activity that depends on balanced copyright – added $2.2 trillion dollars annually to the U.S. economy, or 16.6 percent of total U.S. current dollar GDP.  The study also found that the fair use economy employs one in eight U.S. workers, generating a payroll of $1.2 trillion.   <Click Here for a Copy of CCIA's Fair Use Study>

“CCIA fully disclosed the underlying figures in our fair use study,” Black said. “A handful of presentation slides do not constitute economic research.  If Hollywood won’t show their math, something doesn’t add up.”

About CCIA:
CCIA is an international, nonprofit association of computer and communications industry firms, representing a broad cross section of the industry. CCIA is dedicated to preserving full, fair and open competition throughout our industry. Our members employ more than 600,000 workers and generate annual revenues in excess of $200 billion.