T2k
06-15-07, 03:19 PM
http://techdirt.com/articles/20070615/112537.shtml
Canada Is Hollywood's Fastest Growing Market. What Happened To All That Piracy Destroying The Business?
from the doesn't-add-up dept
As you probably recall, the MPAA spent the first half of this year whining (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070115/153254.shtml) about what a huge problem piracy was in Canada. It spent a ton of effort getting press and government officials to claim that the movie industry in Canada was being threatened by pernicious piracy everywhere. In fact, certain MPAA members even threatened to stop distributing movies to Canada, saying the threat of piracy was just too high. Warner Brothers even went so far to stop showing promos (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070508/202525.shtml) in Canada. All that bluster (with nothing (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070205/114410.shtml) to actually back it up) resulted in Canada passing an entirely unnecessary law (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070604/010717.shtml) . Of course, if you'd been reading all those articles, you probably thought that this piracy problem was destroying the movie business in Hollywood. What the MPAA left out of course, is that this wasn't true at all. Canada actually is Hollywood's largest growth market (http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2032/125/) last year (well before this law passed, or was so important to the industry). So, if piracy was such a huge problem... then how come so many more people were actually going and paying for movies?
Canada Is Hollywood's Fastest Growing Market. What Happened To All That Piracy Destroying The Business?
from the doesn't-add-up dept
As you probably recall, the MPAA spent the first half of this year whining (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070115/153254.shtml) about what a huge problem piracy was in Canada. It spent a ton of effort getting press and government officials to claim that the movie industry in Canada was being threatened by pernicious piracy everywhere. In fact, certain MPAA members even threatened to stop distributing movies to Canada, saying the threat of piracy was just too high. Warner Brothers even went so far to stop showing promos (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070508/202525.shtml) in Canada. All that bluster (with nothing (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070205/114410.shtml) to actually back it up) resulted in Canada passing an entirely unnecessary law (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070604/010717.shtml) . Of course, if you'd been reading all those articles, you probably thought that this piracy problem was destroying the movie business in Hollywood. What the MPAA left out of course, is that this wasn't true at all. Canada actually is Hollywood's largest growth market (http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2032/125/) last year (well before this law passed, or was so important to the industry). So, if piracy was such a huge problem... then how come so many more people were actually going and paying for movies?