the MPAA & RIAA vs the Internet

I just read an Economist article about how the MPAA (and, by extension, the RIAA) are ignoring the internet in the hope that it will go away, instead of taking full advantage of the amazing possibilities it could yield. Instead of summarizing the article I intend to expound on the possibilities that the internet holds for worldwide distribution.

What the MPAA fails to understand is that the current model of $20-a-pop DVD sales as the majority of revenue is fundamentally flawed: a the only people who are willing to pay that kind of money for a movie are those who are either too inept to use a computer or have the sort of disposable income to make that kind of purchase stomachable. For those of us in college without a significant source of income, or those of us who are too busy making mortgage payments and staving off creditors, the proposition is ridiculous.

What the MPAA must realize is that the first is far outnumbered by the second. By lowering the price to rent a movie online, the MPAA would make the prospect of buying movies (instead of pirating them) conceivable. In this case the MPAA makes $2.50 where they otherwise would have made nothing. It is imperative to their survival as a cornerstone of American cultural commerce that they realize as quickly as possible that their current revenue models are outmoded and inconvenient.

I reluctantly admonish the MPAA to start considering the reality around them instead of harking back to the "good old days" when competition was nonexistent for inspiration. I in all sincerity hope that the MPAA fails in this task, if only because the prospects for independent directors to succeed are vastly improved as long as the internet remains unfamiliar and unapproachable to the media juggernauts pacing its boundary. The internet will cease to be the creative marketplace of ideas and content that I grew up with once American corporate culture gains anything even resembling a steady footing online.