Hypocrisy in Hollywood: The Rich, White Males in the Film Industry Are the Real Pirates

By Simone Wilson Wed., Feb. 22 2012 at 10:05 AM

"Pirates of the Caribbean," one of the most pirated movies ever, still raked in billions.

It's no secret -- rich white guys in Hollywood were the No. 1 reason why scary copyright bills SOPA and PIPA almost made it through Washington this year.

Yet the film industry is sort of the original pirate, leeching off the public domain of creativity and making a killing off the genius of a few.

All this, laid out in a sweet new infographic from Paralegal.net:

It shows how Hollywood, born as a renegade answer to strict copyright laws in the East, later reverted on its spirit of freedom and creativity to become a selfish, stifling ruler. (Sigh. Why does everything come back to Animal Farm?)

Keep in mind that the Hollywood blockbuster machine is as corporate as the WalMart empire, and as rich-white-male as the Augusta National Golf Club, or even the coal industry. (As is the voting pool for the Academy Awards, which surely perpetuates all that homogeny via Oscars prestige.)

So here you have it: Film executives' claims that piracy is draining the industry of its life-blood are a pile of BS. And hypocritical, besides.

Created by: Paralegal

[@simone_electra / swilson@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

We Recommend

DAMN

DAMN WHITE PEOPLE! DAMN THEM ALL! ARRRRRRRRG! WHITE PEOPLE! ARRRRRGH!

Idiot.

Rob8urcakes

Absolutely brilliant and FACTUAL account of Hollywood Hypocrisy and the MPAA's stubborn refusal to adapt in a friendly manner to new technology and the demands of a 21st Century society.

The MAFIAA.org can throw as many tantrums and as much cash as they like to keep they're monopolistic grip on the dwindling number of people willing to work for your organisations as they migrate to more open and better businesses to ensure the consumer gets what it wants and expects from OUR production of culture and creativity.

The MAFIAA's business model of pimp & whore is at an end.Adapt or die.

Your pathetic and expensive attempts to try and stop filesharing and lockdown creations and culture via CopyWrong and Patent laws is very poorly grounded and a profound misjudgement of your end-consumer and potential customer.

Dennis Romero

Simone,

I disagree with your opinion that the reason that SOPA and PIPA (I see you are only giving attention to this now that those particular bills have been put on hold, please try to cover the new bills that they are trying to push through) almost made it through Washington because of "old rich white guys."

I think it has more to do with the current state of journalism (or lack thereof) and the fact that most people are too distracted and misinformed to understand things that have tremendous impacts on their lives. How many articles did you write about SOPA and PIPA in the last year? Do you really understand what those bills would do? You are labeling them as bad (and I agree with that), but do you know why?

I understand that you are just jumping on the bandwagon with this one, but hey, maybe you could do some "journalism" and see what new bill they have morphed SOPA into and make people aware of it from your soap box (at the early stages, so something can be done).

Thanks,

D-bag

pocopelli

The film industry will soon ask the Government to build ticket booths for them to exclude non-payers. This is exactly the request of Intellectual Property. The Free Market is supposed to determine the value of products- not arbitrary Government mandates that create unnatural scarcity to increase value. Senator Orrin Hatch has already talked about blowing up computers without due process. True Story. http://www.dethronehatch.com/o...