Motion Picture Association of America

Motion Picture Association of America
Type	Film ratings, lobbying, anti-piracy
Headquarters	Washington, D.C. United States
Membership	Walt Disney Studios Sony Pictures Entertainment Paramount Pictures 20th Century Fox Universal Studios Warner Bros.
Chairman and CEO	Chris Dodd
Website	www.mpaa.org

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is an American trade association that represents the six big Hollywood studios. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), it advances the business interests of its members and administers the MPAA film rating system. Former Democratic Senator Chris Dodd is the current Chairman.

As part of its campaign to curb copyright infringement, the MPAA fights against sharing copyrighted works via peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. The MPAA's anti-piracy campaign has gained much publicity and criticism.

History

In 1922, the "Big Three" motion picture studios, Famous Players-Lasky, Metro-Goldwyn and First National, founded the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America,^[1] headed by former U.S. Postmaster General Will H. Hays.^[2] In May 1925 Independent Producers Association, together with Motion Picture Theater Owners Of America, accused the "Big Three" for acting as a trust and denounced Hays as their "mouthpiece".^[3] In October they filed claims to the Federal Trade Commission, providing a 280-page report detailing "Big Three's" tactics.^[4] The "Big three" made a few concessions to quell the critics^[5] but the monopolistic studio system was eventually established and not brought down until 1948: United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc..

The group adopted the Motion Picture Production Code, popularly known as the "Hays Code" in 1930. The Code spelled out what was acceptable and what was unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for a public audience in the United States. Enforcement of Hays Code began in 1934 and continued until 1968, when it was replaced by the MPAA film rating system. The office enforcing the code was known as the Hays Office and later the Breen Office after its first administrator, Joseph Breen.

In 1945, Hays was succeeded by former U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Eric Johnston.^[6] It was during Johnston's tenure that the name of the organization was changed to "The Motion Picture Association of America". Johnston inherited the stringent censorship responsibilities associated with the Hays Code, but added to his mission the promotion of American films, which were gaining in popularity overseas in the post-World War II era. Following Johnston's death in 1963, the MPAA's top post remained unfilled for three years, while studio executives searched for a successor.

Jack Valenti was the president of Motion Picture Association of America for 38 years

Alongside the progress of civil rights, women's rights and labor movements, a new kind of American film was emerging—frank and uninhibited. Amid society's expanding freedoms, the movie industry's restrictive regime of self-censorship became increasingly outdated. In May 1966, Jack Valenti, former Special Assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson, was named MPAA President. That same year, sweeping revisions were made to the Hays Code to reflect changing social mores. In 1968, Valenti founded the voluntary film rating system easing restraints on filmmakers' creative and artistic freedoms, while fulfilling its core purpose of informing parents about the content of films so they can determine which movies are appropriate for their children.

In 2004, after serving as MPAA president for 38 years, Valenti retired and was replaced by former Kansas Congressman and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman. Glickman led the association during a period of significant industry transformation, retiring from the position in the Spring of 2010. On March 1, 2011, former senator Chris Dodd was chosen to be the new head of MPAA.^[7]

Film rating system

The MPAA administers a motion picture rating system used in the United States to rate films' thematic and content suitability for certain audiences. MPAA ratings carry no force of local, state, or federal law and the rating system is voluntary, applying only to films submitted for rating. Films may be exhibited without ratings, though many theaters refuse to exhibit non-rated films. After screening films, the selected viewers arrive at one of five ratings. Theater owners agree to enforce corporate film ratings as determined by the MPAA, which in turn facilitates their access to new film releases.

The primary MPAA ratings are G (General Audiences), PG (Parental Guidance Suggested/Some material might not be suitable for children), PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned/Some material may be inappropriate for children under the age of 13), R (Restricted/Under 17 not admitted without parent or adult guardian), and NC-17 (No One 17 and Under Admitted).

MPAA formerly used GP for PG, which originally stood for "General Audiences, Parental Guidance Suggested. The M rating was the original name of GP/PG and signified a film with mature themes. X was the original name of NC-17 and started out as no people under 18, but later became 17.

Members

MPAA members include the following studios:^[8]

• The Walt Disney Studios (The Walt Disney Company);
• Sony Pictures Entertainment (Sony);
• Paramount Pictures (Viacom);
• 20th Century Fox (News Corporation);
• Universal Studios (Comcast);
• Warner Bros. (Time Warner).

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM Holdings) was an MPAA member until 2005, shortly after Sony Pictures Entertainment's failed attempt to buy that studio. Other, smaller studios and distribution companies that are not members of the MPAA avail themselves of the association's rating and title registration services. RKO Pictures (GenCorp) was also an MPAA member, but until 2006, shortly after Universal Studios' failed attempt to buy that studio.

Anti-piracy efforts

Home recording

In the early 1980s, the Association opposed the videocassette recorder (VCR) on copyright grounds. In a 1982 congressional hearing, Valenti decried the "savagery and the ravages of this machine" and compared its effect on the film industry and the American public to the Boston Strangler.^[9]

Publicity campaigns

The MPAA has promoted a variety of publicity campaigns designed to increase public awareness about piracy, including Who Makes Movies?; You can click, but you can't hide; and You Wouldn't Steal a Car, a 2004 advertisement appearing before program content on many DVDs.^[10]

The MPAA and its British counterpart, the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), funded the training of Lucky and Flo, a pair of Labrador Retrievers to detect polycarbonates used in the manufacturing of DVDs.^[11][12]

Legal actions

The MPAA has instituted legal actions against a number of peer-to-peer file-sharing sites (or BitTorrent trackers) used to upload and download copyrighted material like movies. Widely publicised examples include Razorback2 and The Pirate Bay.^[13]

In February 2006, the MPAA released the following statement:

The Pirate Bay

Responding to allegations of copyright violations, Swedish police raided The Pirate Bay, a BitTorrent tracker based in Sweden, on May 31, 2006. Some 65 police officers participated in the raid, shutting down the site and confiscating its servers, as well as all other servers hosted by Pirate Bay's ISP, PRQ Inet. Three people—Gottfrid Svartholm, Mikael Viborg, and Fredrik Neij—were held by the police for questioning.^[14] Three days later, Pirate Bay was fully functional again.

The raid became controversial in Sweden when the Swedish public broadcast network, Sveriges Television, cited unnamed sources claiming that the raid was prompted by political pressure from the United States. The Swedish government allegedly was threatened with WTO trade sanctions unless action was taken against Pirate Bay.^[15]

The Swedish government denied these allegations. However, a letter titled "Re: The Pirate Bay" from the MPAA to Swedish State Secretary Dan Eliasson, dated two months before the raid, hinted at trade reprisals. The letter stated, "it is certainly not in Sweden's best interests to earn a reputation as a place where utter lawlessness is tolerated." The letter went on to urge Eliasson to "exercise your influence to urge law enforcement officers in Sweden to take much needed action against The Pirate Bay."

In an MPAA press release, which has since been taken down, dated May 31, 2006, entitled "Swedish Authorities Sink Pirate Bay," Glickman states:

In both the 2007 documentary Good Copy Bad Copy and the film Steal This Film II,^[17] Glickman spoke about the 2006 raid on The Pirate Bay and conceded that piracy will never be stopped. He emphasized, however, that the MPAA will try to make it as difficult and tedious as possible.^[18]

Controversies and criticisms

Disputed figures

On January 22, 2008, the MPAA admitted publishing incorrect figures in a study in which it claimed 44% of film industry revenue losses in America due to piracy were occurring at colleges.^[19] The study had been produced by the MPAA to put pressure on universities to crack down on illegal file-sharing and to lobby for legislation before the House of Representatives that would force them to do so.^[20] The MPAA's revised figure reduced the claimed loss of revenue to 15%.

Rating system

Copyright issues

Online File Sharing

MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd

The rise of the Internet has further emphasized the MPAA’s role in controlling content, notwithstanding that some users may access content they otherwise could not, such as NC-17 movies not shown in theaters. The MPAA has won several victories, like with Razorback2 (a major server on the EDonkey2000 network) and a series of successful lawsuits against public torrent websites.

Arguably, the effect MPAA raids have had on overall online pirating traffic is limited. For example, the day Razorback2 was shut down, EDonkey2000 network traffic remained constant.^[21] The MPAA, however, claims to have had a very successful history shutting down networks of pirated material and torrent sites and alleges that during 2006, for example, 75 were shut down.^[22]

In 2011, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives and its counterpart, PIPA to the Senate. After Wikipedia, Google and other major technology websites staged an online protest, many people contacted their representatives and the bill was taken out of consideration. Days later, MPAA chairman Chris Dodd threatened that campaign contributions to politicians that failed to support the legislation would be cut off.^[23]

Allegations of copyright infringement by the MPAA

In 2007, English software developer Patrick Robin alleged that the MPAA illegally used his blogging platform, Forest Blog, which is distributed without cost under a linkware license, whereby users must link back to his site. To remove these links, one must secure a license, but Patrick Robin claimed the MPAA removed them without purchasing a license. The MPAA responded that it was only testing the blogging platform and that the blog was "never advertised to the public in any way."^[24] On November 23, 2007, Matthew Garrett notified the MPAA that it was in violation of the GNU General Public License (GPL) for distributing a software toolkit, based on the Xubuntu operating system and designed to help universities detect instances of potentially illegal file-sharing on school networks. Garrett alleged that the MPAA violated the GPL by distributing a derived work without making source code available. On December 1, 2007, Garrett notified the Internet service provider for the MPAA that, in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, he was requesting them to disable the offending distribution web site. The MPAA subsequently changed its site so the toolkit was no longer offered for distribution.^[25]

Monopoly

Because MPAA members are the motion picture industry's most powerful studios, in turn owned by some of the world's largest media corporations, critics of the association often raise allegations of monopoly.^[26][27] They also cite the MPAA's support for closed standards that hinder competition. Other critics, like filmmaker Kirby Dick, have suggested that films released by major studios (members of the MPAA) are given more deference in terms of ratings than films released by independents.^[28]

In other media

This Film Is Not Yet Rated is an independent documentary film about the Motion Picture Association of America's rating system and its effect on American culture, directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Eddie Schmidt. The film discusses disparities in ratings and feedback: between Hollywood and independent films, between homosexual and heterosexual sexual situations, between male and female sexual depictions, and between violence and sexual content.^[29][30]

See also

	Film portal
	United States portal

• Australian Classification Board
• British Board of Film Classification
• Center for Copyright Information
• DeCSS: decryption program for DVD video discs using Content Scramble System
• Entertainment Software Rating Board
• National Association of Theatre Owners
• Operation Red Card
• Pre-Code Hollywood
• Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
• This Film Is Not Yet Rated

References

External links

• Official website
• MPPDA Digital Archives (1922-1939)