There have been questions about whether or not the MPAA actually does anything useful for years. Now, one of its most prominent members, Sony Pictures, seems to think the answer is a resounding no.
It seems that last month, Sony Pictures chairman Michael Lyntonrevealed his true feelings about the MPAA to some of his industry colleagues. Perhaps most surprisingly, he also told them that Sony was thinking about pulling itself out of the industry alliance.
There are a number of issues at play, and one of the primary concerns is whether or not the MPAA does anything that comes close to justifying the whopping $20 million in annual dues that they charge their members. $20 million is a lot of money. In fact, that’s nearly a third of Sony Pictures’ operating profit for all of 2014.
Lynton was understandably upset when, in the wake of the very public and very humiliating attack on Sony that took place last year, the MPAA showed little (if any) public support for one of its members. Clearly Lynton thought that the MPAA should have had Sony’s back, and it’s hard to disagree when they’ve been funneling tens of millions of dollars into MPAA coffers for years.
Another big gripe is about what it is that the MPAA is actually doing. They’ve been in the news for all the wrong reasons, liketaking an entire town offline due to a single piracy complaint back in 2009. They’re constantly playing cat-and-mouse with filesharing sites despite endless research — and legal opinions — that cast serious doubt on whether piracy actually has a negative effect on sales.
Ultimately, Lynton decided that Sony would stick around. But now it looks like he and his allies are pushing for serious reforms in the MPAA, so perhaps we’ll be seeing more marginally useful thingscoming out of their offices in the coming years.
Source: geek.com
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