As the MPAA tells it, piracy is really killing the movie industry. It's been whining about piracy for basically my entire lifetime, and constantly predicting its own demise if "something" is not done. And, despite the fact that Congress has repeatedly obliged Hollywood in ratcheting up copyright anti-piracy laws and despite the fact that the MPAA has been clearly wrong repeatedly (such that the new technologies it feared actually helped expand Hollywood's business), the studios continue to push for awful changes to copyright law, citing the horrors of piracy.
And yet... now it's coming out that Disney not only had a good year last year, it had the best year ever for a movie studio. Not surprisingly, Disney put out its own glowing press release over this:
[Also Covered By]: Disney made more money in a single year than any other movie studio—ever
(Score: 3, Informative) by Whoever on Saturday May 27 2017, @05:45AM (2 children)
Yes, it's not like Disney made billions of dollars on the basis of a few old stories (or not so old stories [wikipedia.org]) without paying for them, is it?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 27 2017, @05:09PM (1 child)
That's a good point! By that rationale, Arthur Laurents shouldn't be paid for his book, Leonard Bernstein shouldn't be paid for the music he wrote, Stephen Sondheim shouldn't be paid for the lyrics he wrote, Jerome Robbins shouldn't be paid for his choreography, and of course, none of the actors or crew should be paid since West Side Story is just a rip off of Romeo and Juliet. And of course, anyone should be able to copy any or all of that work without paying one cent to those who created it. Does anyone actually think before they write?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 28 2017, @04:18AM
How much did THEY pay Shakespeare's estate? 'Cause that's the way things are headed.