Copyright Law

MPAA Enjoys Record Breaking Profits ? Again!

By Jared Moya

Box office ticket sales up more than an astounding 9% over last year for a new record breaking total of $10.5 billion dollars, making it the second biggest year over year growth ever.

MPAA head Dan Glickman routinely tells anyone that'll listen that Hollywood needs protection, that profits are being robbed of it by heartless pirates and that more, much more, needs to be done fight illegal file-sharing.

It’s trying its best to form partnerships with ISPs to target illegal downloading at the network level, and is pulling out all the stops to try and get "three-strikes" legislation passed around the globe via international treaties like the secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), of which negotiations are still underway.

So when Hollywood.com’s Box Office reports that not only are ticket sales up, but that they’re way way up, it’s a little more than irritating.

It reports that so far box office ticket sales are up 9.03%, the second biggest year over year growth ever, for a record breaking total of $10.5 billion! It eclipses the previous record of $9.68 billion set in 2007.

Earlier this year Glickman said the MPAA making record profits is "nothing to apologize for,' and that "constructive policies" (read increased piracy legislation) is in the "national interest" so that we "don't give second-class citizenship to creative jobs."

"Whether we build cars or make movies shouldn't matter," he added.

But, indeed it does matter, especially when we’re talking about disconnecting people from the Internet and perhaps filtering and inspecting network traffic for signs of copyright infringement.

It’s a hard pill to swallow with record profits as a backdrop in the conversation.

""There was a feeling that the business was recession-proof, but this is more than that," said Jeff Blake, vice chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment. "This is people rediscovering going to the movies."

File-sharers have said all along that if a movie’s good they’ll go and see it at the theater for there’s no comparison to a living room TV or PC monitor, especially if a downloaded movie is anything less than screener or R5 quality.

One illegal download does not equal one lost sale and I think these new box office figures truly sum it up. If piracy is at record levels then should the rise in ticket sales have been 20 or 30% instead of a mere 9%? I think not.

A 9% gain proves Hollywood is doing just fine.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

Full post as published by ZeroPaid on December 14, 2009 (boomark / email).