Says that “Movie theatres would sell more tickets and popcorn (and that) corn growers would earn greater profits and buy more farm equipment.”
In an odd statement made recently in a hearing with the FCC, NBC Universal tried to win over the hearts and minds of politicians by making the outrageous claim that P2P and file-sharing-related piracy hurts the wallets of poor corn farmers simply trying to make a living.
Their idea is that if more people went to the theaters to watch movies then more people would therefore buy popcorn and put more money in the pockets of farmers who could then “…earn greater profits and buy more farm equipment.”
They noted:
“Because of our nation’s interlocking economy, two-thirds of the lost earnings and lost jobs are in industries other than motion picture production. For example, in the absence of movie piracy, video retailers would sell and rent more titles. Movie theatres would sell more tickets and popcorn. Corn growers would earn greater profits and buy more farm equipment.”
They try to make the claim that there’s a sort of trickle down economics theory involved in that people like soda, candy, popcorn, and hot dog vendors and producers also lose money when people use P2P or file-sharing programs to acquire movies instead of paying to watch them in a movie theater.
The only problem with the argument is that corn farmers in this country are currently experiencing record high profits from corn bushel prices as the demand for govt mandated ethanol levels in gasoline production slowly increases. Also worth mentioning is the huge annual farm subsidies that the Feds love to dole out and announce with great fanfare every 4 years in states like Ohio during the presidential primary season. Corn farmers are doing just fine without having to worry about popcorn sales.
But, I guess as always, the truth is always a matter of opinion for Hollywood. You do have to admire their style though, I mean who doesn’t like farmers, and playing the poor farmer card could surely play well with politicians in Washington. I just hope they look no further than their gas tank to realize that corn farmers are doing quite well these days.
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This is surely the most far-fetched and ridiculous statement against p2p that I have seen so far. This guy has a good imagination!
Thank you NBC thank you I needed a reason not to buy popcorn next time I go to the movies.
It’s not bad enough that the popcorn is old dry and greasy you had to then try to use this as a reason to stop p2p.
I already don’t watch your tv shows so now I’ll not be buying any more popcorn.
I thank you and my waist line thanks you too.
Here is an idea if you can’t make people fatter with your gross pop-corn make some ethenal. That way you’re doing us 2 favors not making us less healthy and giving us fuel for our cars to drive to work to pay for the internet which is our window to P2P which in turn makes you tons of money from ethenal. Put it this way we just saved corn-farmers from a drastic shortage and helped preserve oil. I don’t use P2P but then again I have a job that allows me to afford it. I also don’t waste money on 8 dollar bags of 6 hour old popcorn at the theater. My 4 cents.
@ryanito
I know I think we oughta get a discount for the long term healthcare effects of all that butter they lather on that popcorn.
Not sure who I hate more…the jagovs at NBC Universal or the bloodsucking scum attorneys they’re paying (tons) to come up with these numb-skull arguments. I’m sure that with the money they paid some firm to type that moronic brief they could have bought 750 bushels of corn.
LMAO …shit… that is by far the most funniest thing i have read in a long time and sides do they really think farmers aint selling much corn because of p2p or the crappy ass movies hollywood launches these days…eg. fantastic suck and ghost ryder?…which makes people not wanna go to the movies anymore?…
without saying that it’s not because you don’t go to the theatre that you want have pop corns when you watch your P2P DL movie……. or have a soda a hot dog or any junk food….. I mean what’s the connection movies and pop corn….. so what has the theatre to do in that… we can have both at home for cheaper….. an I hate popcorn anyway….. maybe cracker jacks lol
that’s ridiculous to say the least .sed on the same idiotic comparision .
but it’s ba
you could just as easily say that rented dvd’s are robbing poor corn farmers . Or to be more correct : “the free will of the people to choice what they want to eat ” is robbing the corn farmers .
After all we are so evil because we don’t want too stuff ourselves with popcorn 24/7 right ?
If those blind moron’s really cared about American jobs they would have raised hell at the millions of jobs being outsourced to third world countries so that the corporates can earn more. At last count they were 30 million homelss in America and going up as more jobs go out of the US.
Take my advice please do not go to the theaters do not let them rip you with the junk they call movies AND most importantly DO NOT BUY anything not made with American labour. Sure I’ll be buying more expensive but at least the darned product will work.
This is just one idiot using the first thing that comes to mind the popcorn is bought on bulk from a processing plant for Dirt cheap and sold at a ridiculous profit pop(Syrup sold in bulk from the middleman) and nachos and hot dogs that are sold there even popcorn seasoning the point is they buy it in bulk from a middle man and make Profits from it. How can you say you help farmers with there popcorn when they are making record profits because of ethonal and vary your buying your corn and pop and all that whole sale cheaper than the average joe and selling it at huge personal profit well theaters have to make there money somehow because the movie industry isnt paying them anything for viewing there films profits from films go straight to the industry’s pockets thats enough of my rants for one day.