Downloading lies: anti-piracy propaganda.

• Author: Weigel, David
• Position: Motion Picture Association of America 's study on piracy - Brief article

IN 2005 THE Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) released a study of movie piracy that estimated how much money was being lost to copyright infringement. "The typical pirate is age 16-24 and male," the MPAA reported, adding that "44 percent of MPAA company losses in the U.S. are attributable to college students"

MPAA members used that impressive statistic to lobby Congress and universities for tighter controls on college Ethernet networks. College students became the bogeymen in the download wars, blamed for the movie business's troubles.

But it turns out the number was wildly off. In January 2008 the MPAA admitted that the share of movie pirating losses attributable to college students was more like 15 percent, about one-third the figure offered in the 2005 report.

People familiar with the study say researchers assumed every film that was illegally downloaded otherwise would have been purchased--not rented, but bought at full price...