[Chris] Dodd, who became CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America after leaving the Senate in 2011, noted the movie “Avatar” was stolen by online pirates 21 million times. Such acts, he said, threaten to decimate his industry.
“You can complain and say, well, actors make a lot of money and they don’t have to worry about this,” said Dodd. “You tell that to that camera guy, you tell that to that makeup artist, you tell that to that truck driver out there who made, makes a living because they work in this industry.”
“Avatar” was made by 20th Century Fox which, like Fox News Channel, is owned by NewsCorp. Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of NewsCorp, has also been outspoken in promoting two pieces of anti-piracy legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, known respectively as “SOPA” and “PIPA,” to protect copyrighted material.
via EXCLUSIVE: Chris Dodd Warns Of Hollywood Backlash Against Obama Over Anti-piracy Bill | Fox News.
And the economic devastation brought about by piracy can be shown in the global receipts for “Avatar”….
Total Lifetime Grosses
Domestic: $760,507,625 27.3% + Foreign: $2,021,767,547 72.7%
= Worldwide: $2,782,275,172
[source] |
I really don’t know how a movie that *makes over $2,000,000,000 in a year* is somehow indicative of an industry being crushed. That none of this money makes it makes it back the make-up artists, truck drivers, and cameramen…really isn’t anyone’s fault but the studios themselves.