The MPAA has admitted that the numbers it uses in its attempt to sell its case that college campuses should be policing their students online activities have turned out to be false. They use to claim that college file-swappers were responsible for 44% of the studios losses but now it turns out its only 15. They are calling on human error but thats quite a big error. Especially considering how they use the numbers to bludgeon colleges about how put upon the entertainment industry is by pirates. These numbers where also used to help fool a House bill that would require college campuses to spy on student activity and filter it as needed.
Not mentioned in the various online reports is what I consider an important fact. All the numbers about pirating and the cost comes from the companies themselves. The studies are payed for by the companies themselves. How the data was derived, the numbers used, the costs calculated, every bit of information used in these various headline grabbing reports are secret information that the RIAA and MPAA refuse to release. No report to my knowledge has ever independently collaborated their numbers. Long story short, they have a vested interest to inflate their numbers, to claim higher damages because it helps in their cause to force laws th funnel money to them rather then force geniune competition.
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