Once again the MPAA has released its box-office numbers for the year, and once again, this year has smashed all records (as has been the case throughout our young century) (really!). As always, the astronomical rise-and-rise of their fortunes is somehow used to launch a call for more publicly subsidized enforcement against "piracy."
Despite the fact that piracy is primarily driven by dumb commercial decisions, something scholars and economists agree on, the studios continue to clamor for more Internet-punishing, anti-competitive, pro-censorship, pro-surveillance rules to help save them from their own ideological commitment to windowed releases and high-risk tentpole economics.
But despite the impressive numbers (full report – pdf), the MPAA insists that piracy is still a problem. According to Dodd the box office would be more healthy to the tune of $1.5 billion if piracy could be brought under control.
Theatrical Market Statistics 2015 [MPAA]
PIRACY FAILS TO PREVENT ANOTHER BOX OFFICE RECORD [Andy/Torrent Freak]
(Image: TaniaVdB)
