Apropos my previous rantings, Boing Boing pointed to some Defamer snark about the MPAA’s exhortions to American cinemagoers to respect copyrights.
Like Xeni says, the Respect Copyrights Web site is pretty sucky. (And “.org”? Is it really non-profit?) And no one could accuse the MPAA of obscuring their message with excessive subtlety:
YOU CAN CLICK BUT YOU CAN’T HIDE
If you think you can get away with illegally swapping movies, you’re wrong. Illegally trafficking in movies is not just a dirty little secret between you and your computer. You leave a trail. The message is simple: if you are downloading copyrighted movies without proper authorization, you are breaking the law. You face serious consequences if you illegally swap movies. The only way not to get caught is to stop.
I watched the (10 minute!) “theatrical spot”. (Boing Boing has the direct links.) I think it’s a lot closer to what the movie industry should be doing. As a friend and I have been recently discussing, movies cost money. They cost money because there are a lot of expenses. It’s not rapacious of the producers to want to recover those expenses. It’s entirely reasonable. The “theatrical spot” explains what some of those expenses are (and, as an added bonus, explains—and shows—what a “foley artist” actually does).
It also does the kidnapper trick. It gives the people behind the scenes names and faces. It makes them people, not just names that roll up on the screen after you’ve left the theatre. It personalises them.
But Defamer makes the obvious counterpoint:
We all know how absurd these ads are–if Jerry Bruckheimer makes an extra $30 million for Bad Boys X, he isn’t going to show up on Manny Perry’s doorstep with a briefcase full of “profit-sharing” or cancel his latest union-busting Vancouver shoot.
I’m not anti-copyright. I’m not pro-downloading. I pay my money at the box office, I buy DVDs, and I buy CDs. But that Australian ad just rubbed me the wrong way—mainly because my impression was the same as Kim Weatherall’s, and I know a bit about copyright law too.
Maybe the shorts before the movies in the U.S. are as annoying as the Australian versions. But, I’ve got to say, the 10 minute opus on the Respect Copyrights Web site is, I think, a step in the right direction.
