Motion Picture Association of America lawsuits futile

Cork Board

By: Paul Corkery

Posted: 11/19/04

Have you been surfing the Gnutella and eDonkey networks for the latest movie titles? It might be time to reconsider this practice, now that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has begun filing a number of lawsuits against individuals who trade, distribute and/or download pirated copies of movies over the Internet.

This may sound familiar, as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been engaged in similar action against music downloaders for several months, successfully suing over 6,000 individuals for copyright violation.

The initial wave of lawsuits will be filed later this month, and will include around two hundred John Doe's. Subpoenas will then be sought to determine the identities of these file-swappers, thereby establishing an official defendant list.

Individuals sued by the MPAA could have to pay damages of $150,000 for each pirated title.

MPAA chief Dan Glickman estimates that movie piracy has cost the industry around $3.5 billion dollars a year. The former MPAA chief, Jack Valenti, had resisted pressure to file these types of lawsuits, but new management feels that this is a necessary step in recouping their losses and discouraging pirating practices.

Determining exactly how much revenue is being lost to movie piracy is a little difficult, but the situation is not nearly as dire compared to the music trading practices the RIAA has been combating. There are a number of differences that makes the MPAA's response just a tad severe.

Movie swapping, although growing in popularity, has not, nor has the potential to become as rampant as music swapping. There are several reasons for this reduced threat level.

Theatrical releases, despite the development of digital projection technology, are still distributed in non-digital film form. The number of individuals dedicated enough to distill a digital copy from a film tape is remarkably slim. Studios have also taken to watermarking their film, and there has been no recorded instance of someone successfully removing the studio's watermark, thereby rendering all digital-copies rendered in this highly-complex fashion traceable.

The music CD format has never, until recently (select titles), included any complex form of encryption or data protection, making it extremely easy for CD owners to transfer their CD based music tracks to their hard drive using various simple encoding techniques.

Although DVDs do not feature advanced copy protection, they are not as easily copied (ripped) to disk. Encoding DVD video and audio requires a more advanced skill set.

Several products like DVDXCopy (parent company went belly-up after being sued by the MPAA) have been released, designed to simplify the process for consumers, but none have reached the "insert disk and click" simplicity of CD encoding. This process also takes much longer than CD encoding, depending on available processing power, and the files produced are extremely large.

DVDs, having multiple recording layers and thus containing more data than conventional CDs produce movie files that can be several gigabytes in size uncompressed. Uncompressed music files are around 50MB depending on track length. This astronomical size hampers the portability of these files, so obviously the solution is compression.

By sacrificing debatable amounts of quality, it is possible to reduce a full length movie to less than 1 GB in size. The process for doing this is not only complex, but can require an immense amount of time and processing power. Although significantly smaller than its lossless format, compressed movie files still restrict file portability.

Broadband is finding its way into many homes across America, but many are still limited to slow dial-up speeds that would require several days to download a full-length compressed movie. Even broadband subscribers may have to wait several days to download such large files through P2P services depending on the bandwidth afforded by the source. Although there are alternative means of downloading these files in a speedier fashion (BitTorrent, etc), many have not found their way into the mainstream, and are primarily utilized by advanced users.

There is still heated debate regarding how much of a hit the record industry took from music file-swapping, but the figures for movie file-swapping are certainly not as significant.

The DVD format has been a blessing for the movie industry. Sales of the format have been astronomical since its introduction. People are re-buying titles they owned on VHS, because of the superior quality and extra features offered with DVDs.

There is also the introduction of "special editions" which spur sales of already purchased DVDs - double dip.

While the superior quality of DVDs has increased sales, so has the fair price point. Unlike music CDs, most movie DVDs can be had for a fair price, and mega-stores like Best Buy will often offer 3 for $25 specials. Special edition box sets and compilation packs retail for more, but if all you want is the movie and a few extra features, the DVD is not going to cost you an arm and a leg.

Compared to CDs, DVDs are a bargain. Consider that the Shrek 2 soundtrack sells for $18.98 on Amazon, while the DVD movie sells for $17.99. Music CDs used to sell for $10-$12, but now most are $15+. In fact, you can get a DVD player for the price of 2 CDs.

The lawsuits the MPAA are filing is part of a larger effort to combat piracy, and promote legitimate and honest use of copyrighted materials. One is inclined to question the wisdom behind attacking one's customer base.

The lawyer fees associated with this type of action, not to mention the damages cited, cannot be recouped through the prosecution of movie file-swappers. Public image is also something to be considered. Many would-be music purchasers are not less likely to go legit based purely on the strong-arm scare tactics employed by the RIAA. It's not about getting even, it's about getting ahead.

An opportunity still exists for the MPAA - an opportunity that the RIAA failed to take advantage of when an 18-year-old Shawn Fanning introduced Napster. As a large conglomerate, the MPAA has the size, organization, and funds to develop a profitable alternative to file-sharing. Stop paying lawyers to extract pennies from teenagers, and put that money into development.

Improve the offerings and functionality of sites like Cinemanow (www.cinemanow.com), MovieLink (www.movielink.com), and Netflix (www.netflix.com). Services like Comcast's OnDemand and Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) are the technologies of the future, and means exists to enhance their profitability.

Music stores like Apple's iTunes have met with success because they answer the demand for digital media downloads, and they incite people to pay for what would otherwise be free by succeeding in areas in which it is difficult for free services to succeed - bandwidth, reliability, security, support, and quality. The time to develop a similar service for movie distribution is now.

Trying to get $150,000 from a college student or his or her parents through legal action is not the proper response to this growing threat to MPAA profits, which remain ample.

When looking to point the guilty finger, the MPAA should consider that many of their own have been responsible for leaking early copies of movies to illegal distributors. Even if they manage to shut down file-swapping, DVD copies of current theatrical releases are still available on the streets of any major city.

The MPAA should use their pull with movie theaters to prevent cameras from making it past ticket-tearers. Also, please stop trying to make file-swappers feel guilty by showing them a gaffer whose ability to provide for his or her family is being harmed by movie pirating - Cameron Diaz took in more than $20 million for her latest cinematic opus.

The hackers are always one step ahead, but that means it is time for the MPAA to keep pace with, if not overtake, them. There are obvious exploitable weaknesses in existing illegal means of distribution and a lengthy list of opportunities for the MPAA.

Lawsuits should certainly not be on the list of recommended weaponry.

Paul Corkery is a BS/MS student in information systems.