MPAA refused to tell U.S. GAO where it got its piracy numbers

More fallout from last week’s U.S. Government Accountability Office report on the entertainment industry’s piracy numbers. The gist of the report was that the government (and you and I) should never believe what the entertainment industry has to say again re: piracy because it was pulling data completely out of thin air. “Oh, 44 percent of all unauthorized file-sharing comes from universities, so you universities have to install filters to prevent students from downloading this and that, and we’ll need new laws passed to protect our dying business methods. Oh, wait, sorry, math error, that’s only 15 percent of unauthorized file-sharing. What, you want to know where we got these numbers from? Sorry, can’t tell you, trade secret, but please pass favorable legislation anyway, kthxbye.”

Somewhere in that rambling mess of dialogue is today’s story. The Motion Picture Association of America had refused to cooperate with the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s investigation into entertainment industry piracy figures. The GAO wanted to know how the movie industry came up with its doom-and-gloom numbers, but the MPAA said, “Nope, we’re not telling.”

What, the government is supposed to take the MPAA at its word? Ha!

Flickr’d

This post is tagged: accountability, air, Business, business methods, dialogue, doom and gloom, entertainment, entertainment industry, error, fallout, favorable legislation, File-sharing, GAO, gist, government, Government Accountability Office, government accountability office report, Headline, industry, kthxbye, legislation, math, math error, mess, motion, motion picture association of america, movie industry, mpaa, new laws, Office, percent, picture, piracy, report, Story, thin air, today, Trade, U.S., U.S. Government, universities, week