MPAA Explains Its Bad Math: It Was Future Non-Existent Piracy

Say That Again

from the ooooh,-that's-all... dept

On Tuesday we wrote about the MPAA announcing that it had shut down a DVD copying plant and seized $30 million worth of DVDs and equipment. Just about everything in the announcement turned out to be wrong. The plant wasn’t actually shut down at all. Also, the DVDs and equipment taken weren’t valued anywhere near $30 million. While there’s some dispute as to how much, the company says they were worth about $15,000. So, as the plant in question has been yelling loudly complaining about the MPAA’s assertions (things that seemed to have taken the MPAA by surprise), the MPAA has decided to respond in the most amazing way. First, they brush off the mistake about the plant being closed saying that was just a mistake (sure it was…) and that the $30 million number represented an estimate of “the value of the DVDs that could be produced by the stamping machines that were seized.” Say that again? In other words… if they seized anyone’s computer with a CD writer or a DVD writer they could claim that they had seized millions in equipment based on the possibility that at some point in the future they might make illegal copies? It’s stunning what the MPAA thinks they can get away with. They’ve learned that the press will basically take whatever they say and run with it, so why bother with the truth?