Congressional Research Service Show Hollywood is Thriving.

Congressional Research Service Shows Hollywood Is Thriving http://t.co/mP0DU8Xc

An interesting research result from a source that isn’t fully bought and paid for by the Studios, that is, a report that may have some chance of relating to the real world rather than the fantasy land that MPAA/RIAA “research” reports come from.

Recently, Senator Ron Wyden asked CRS if it could explore the state of the movie industry today as compared to 1995 on a variety of different criteria. You can read the full report embedded below, but here are a few key points. First off, despite the industry’s regular attempt to play up its contribution to GDP and employment, the report found that the combined GDP contribution of both the “motion picture and sound recording” industries was a whopping 0.4% in 2009. Back in 1995… it was also 0.4%.

Emphasis is from TechDirt.com.

As for employment, Hollywood loves to claim that it employs millions of people. One popular number is that 19 million people have jobs in “IP-intensive industries.” Of course, we’ve discussed how misleading a term that is, as they lump in all sorts of jobs that have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with copyright. So, how many people are actually employed in the movie industry? Not that many. 374,000 in 2010 — and that includes both full and part time workers. And that’s really not much different from the 392,000 in 1998. So it’s not like the industry has been losing employees in droves as they imply. Furthermore, that’s only slightly more than the number of jobs that Facebook’s app platform alone is estimated to have created. Hell, we’ve seen reports that have said eBay alone created 750,000 small business jobs. Perhaps Hollywood isn’t as big a part of the economy as it likes to claim.

I like that last line, and this time I’m going to add the emphasis: Perhaps Hollywood isn’t as big a part of the economy as it likes to claim. 

The article goes on to consider Box Office Gross (higher than ever before), so once again I have to ask: Why do we need the Internet destroying, Constitutionally difficult pieces of nasty legislation as PROTECT IP and SOPA?  O right, to give “Hollywood” ultimate power over the Internet without challenge, due process, or recourse.

Once again it really is a case of protecting the MPAA and RIAA from themselves. Every new technology they’ve challenged and hated over the last 100 yours has turned out to benefit their own business. Idiots. That’s all, they’re just plain idiots. Especially the hypocritical Chris Dodds (now head of the MPAA). Now as head of the MPAA he is totally in favor of a “Great Firewall of China” for the USA (government censorship of the Internet) to protect the MPAA.

“When the Chinese told Google that they had to block sites or they couldn’t do [business] in their country, they managed to figure out how to block sites.”

But just a few years ago as a potential Presidential candidate, he seems to have a whole different opinion:

Tell the Chinese government that Google.cn will no longer censor information with Google’s consent. And should the Chinese government not find that acceptable, then Google.cn would shut down its operations. I understand that you’ve already moved all of your search records out of China, to prevent them from being turned over to the Chinese government. But what better way to affirm Google’s commitment to the free flow of information as a human right, than to send this message to a nation with the largest population in the world?

You can view that video on YouTube. So, is Chris Dodds a lying hypocrite, just incredibly stupid or a politician who’ll say whatever they want to get elected, but ultimately follow exactly what their finical sponsors (aka donors) tell them to do and say.

“How do you know if a politician (future, present or former) is lying? There mouth is moving.”  How true that remains now.