Digital Journal — It’s not everyday that a U.S. college is named to a national top-25 list. But the deans might not swell with pride after reading the recent “dishonour role” released by the Motion Picture Association of America to highlight the top “pirate” schools in the country.
Rating universities on the number of copyright infringement notices they received, the MPAA awarded Columbia University the No. 1 spot, with a whopping 1,198 notices. Joining Columbia in the top-five movie-downloading schools were University of Pennsylvania, Boston University, University of California at Los Angeles, and Purdue University.
The list, available to read here, was compiled at the request of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary. It uses the same methodology as a similar list released by the Recording Industry Association of America in February 2007. In a dubious honour, Purdue made the top-five in both lists.
The MPAA is eager to talk about the negative effects of movie piracy. Annual losses worldwide to piracy amount to $6 billion US, says MPAA spokeswoman Gayle Osterberg in an interview with Digital Journal. “As well, campus piracy can add costs to the school, from consuming network bandwidth to virus exposure to adding administrative burdens,” she adds.
What kind of message does this most-wanted list say? The MPAA is crying over spilled milk by announcing to the world who “wronged” them during the last quarter of 2006. When students download films from illegal services, they’re quietly punching MPAA execs in the ribs. And the MPAA isn’t taking it lying down; rather, they’re releasing press statements and top-25 lists so the public will offer their sympathies.
The list should also serve a wake-up call for the MPAA. Guess what, Hollywood, there’s no surefire way to prevent kids from using technology for whatever they want. You can complain all you want, but the wired generation is not about to change Net tactics just because its school is notorious for illegal downloading.
In fact, the MPAA list may only further embolden schools. Ohio University might think, “We only got 550 MPAA notices? Frig that, we have to catch up to those Duke film nerds!” You know how competitive beer-fuelled froshies can be.
In the future, I recommend Congress and the MPAA stop these outing strategies that only makes them look like childish babies. Netizens don’t need another authority telling them what they can and can’t do.
