Students to MPAA: We're Not Thieves, Just Cash-Poor Consumers

The MPAA recently revised its view on how many students download movies on file-sharing sites. I asked our Dispatches From the Next Generation Correspondent Kelly Sutton, a student at Loyola Marymount, for the student point of view.

From Kelly:

According to a recent Associated Press article, the MPAA grossly misoverestimated the impact of college student movie piracy. Students have only accounted for 15 percent of the MPAA losses in this age of piracy as opposed to the originally reported 44 percent.

While studies like this tend to be speculative at best, one fact has emerged: college students are poor. The MPAA logo--which used to represent the absolute end of a movie--is now associated with phrases like "movie thieves" and euphemisms like "education outreach."

From what I can tell, most of these "thieves" have no idea there is an "outreach" program going on, or litigation for that matter. Students, especially American, aren't concerned with such legal overhead. While universities defending or turning in their students make headlines, no one asks the question, "Why are college students so prone to steal?" Is it our generation's way of sticking it to the man?

Hardly. For myself and my peers, our music and movie acquisition process is largely based on easiness. If Piratebay.org or a client like DC++ is the easiest and fastest, most students will side with it. For some it's iTunes. For other students that don't want to bother with DRM, it's the Amazon MP3 system or Netflix. Legality is often not the question. Legally and illegally acquired music sounds the same when it's played over speakers at a party.

While Americans generally will stop at nothing to pay nothing, if $0.99 avoids potential garbled tracks from Limewire, students might fork up the dough. CNET's Don Reisinger says "College students represent change." I will say on behalf of my generation, "We're flattered." But we embody change no more than Barack Obama nor any other presidential candidate. Students are the most reliable demographic with which to develop a product; get 'em hooked for the rest of their salaried life. And college students do like music and movies. We generally dislike institutions. We don't want to have to jump through hoops or be vilified for some aural and visual goodness.

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