MPAA Pretends 'Offering Something' Is The Same Thing As 'Offering What People Want' (original) (raw)
from the and-that's-why-they're-such-failures dept
We recently wrote about David Pogue’s article highlighting how the movie industry’s failure to embrace what technology allows is a huge cause of infringement, and the industry still doesn’t seem to get that. In response, in typically tone deaf fashion, MPAA spokesperson Howard Gantman has taken the usual tack of not actually addressing what Pogue wrote, but making an unrelated argument. He says that somehow, magically, because there are more crippled, annoying, expensive, incomplete movie services out there, no one should complain. You see, in the MPAA’s world “offering something” is proof that they’re innovating, even if it’s not what people want.
But this shows a rather remarkable lack of awareness of what customers seem to be saying. They’re saying they don’t want services that only let you watch a movie for 24-hours. They’re saying that they don’t want movies that cost ridiculous prices. They want reasonable access at reasonable prices — and the reasons some people aren’t flocking to some of these services isn’t that they’re evil “thieves,” but that they don’t find those new offerings compelling. The proper response is to make them more compelling. But, apparently, in the world of the MPAA, the response is to berate and guilt people for not using their crappy offerings.