Oh Look, The Number Of People Employed In The Movie And Music Recording Business Just Hit An All Time High

from the but-jobs-jobs-jobs! dept

The common refrain coming out of the MPAA and RIAA over the past few years has really focused on “jobs, jobs, jobs!” This is a message that often works with Congress. If you can convince Congress that “jobs” are at risk, they go scrambling to protect those jobs, even if the economy would be much better off with obsolete jobs going away, and better jobs taking their place. That said, the MPAA and RIAA have a long history of making up ridiculous claims about the number of people employed in their industries, as well as the number of supposed “lost jobs.” So it’s rather noteworthy to see that the good folks over at ZeroHedge have pointed out that, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), jobs in the motion picture and sound recording industries hit an all time high in December.

Funny that. I thought that they were losing jobs like crazy, and that without SOPA those jobs would just keep disappearing. Hmm…

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Comments on “Oh Look, The Number Of People Employed In The Movie And Music Recording Business Just Hit An All Time High”

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54 Comments
Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re:

The stats also match the timeline of increasing government and private sector efforts in regard to piracy enforcement.

I would have expected job increases, and that’s exactly what happened.

Is Mike Masnick complaining about these jobs because his theories have been proven incorrect?

That One Guy (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:

Uhuh, and I’m sure that whole ‘global depression’ and the fact that it’s starting to ease up has nothing at all to do with the increase in employment… /s

Also, might wanna be a little careful with the ‘increase in jobs is due to increase in piracy crackdowns’, given that pretty much each peak in that chart is almost immediately followed by a massive drop, often ending up lower then when it started.

Much more likely, is that the peaks are when a big movie is being filmed, with a lot of jobs needed, increasing in needed manpower as things get closer to being done, and the following drop is when suddenly those people aren’t needed anymore, and are let go.

Big Greedy Media LLC says:

You don't get it

You don’t get it. This is obviously the result of the Six Strikes scheme, it doesn’t matter that it’s only just been implemented and not until after December 2012, we keep telling you that the more restrictive regulations regarding copyright there are, the more jobs there will be.

Kind regards,
Big Greedy Media LLC.

out_of_the_blue says:

Re: According to OOTB -- you're close enough.

“…It’s because they shut down that filthy evil pirate Kim Dotcom without a trial…” — Heh, heh. So OBVIOUSLY TRUE that even you fanboy-trolls know it!

THANKS for the advance notice and for joining my clone army by putting up a post close enough to what I was going to. You fanboys WILL eventually share my views, even if you don’t wish to, because I’m aligned with common law, common sense, current legalities, and practical facts.

out_of_the_blue says:

Re: Re: Re: According to OOTB -- you're close enough.

@ AC: “OH wait. Dotcom has opened MEGA and guess what jobs have INCREASED. If Dotcom was operating a piracy site then there will be reports of job losses but the number of jobs are increasing.

Flawed logic by OOTB again!”
———-

How can that be when Mega strongly disavows piracy? :

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/20/mega_launch_fail//

‘Clause 19 makes it plain Mega is a no-dodgy-files zone, stating “You are strictly prohibited from using our services to infringe copyright. You may not upload, download, store, share, display, stream, distribute, e-mail, link to, transmit or otherwise make available any files, data, or content that infringes any copyright or other proprietary rights of any person or entity.”‘

Looks like piratey AC is mistaken about the new Mega.

RyanNerd (profile) says:

Re: Re: According to OOTB -- you're close enough.

I’m not sure if I want to have whatever OOTB is smoking, or if it should be treated like Agent Orange.

It may be nice to be so blissfully ignorant of reality, but whatever he is smoking also seems to have the side effect of bringing one to an arrogance that you know that everyone should believe in your logic no matter how flawed it may be.

out_of_the_blue says:

Where's an economist to analyze whether these are full-time?

Oh, if only there were someone here who didn’t just re-write according to his bias from a one-paragraph blog post, but who actually dug into the numbers.

For example, as a cost-saving measure, many of these are likely to be part-time jobs — not least because of Obamacare not covering part-time employees — so while raw NUMBER may be increased, payroll and amount of total work hours may not have.

out_of_the_blue says:

Re: Re: Where's an economist to analyze whether these are full-time?

@ “That One Guy

WHOOOSH! BOOM!

Person 1: ‘What was that?!’

Person 2: ‘That was the sound of the goalposts being moved quick enough to cause a sonic boom.’

————–

You write so stoopidly that it’s unclear whether you agree with me or not, but at a hazard I’ll guess that you don’t. — Ever look beyond end of your nose? Are you such a dolt as can’t grasp that one number doesn’t tell the whole story? Have you noticed that the weight of product in potato chip bags has gone down while price per bag stays the same? So long as you get a bag, it’s all the same, right?

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re: Where's an economist to analyze whether these are full-time?

“”You write so stoopidly that it’s unclear whether you agree with me or not, but at a hazard I’ll guess that you don’t. — Ever look beyond end of your nose? Are you such a dolt as can’t grasp that one number doesn’t tell the whole story? Have you noticed that the weight of product in potato chip bags has gone down while price per bag stays the same? So long as you get a bag, it’s all the same, right?””

Said comment being written by someone who does exactly the same in what he writes, now that is priceless!

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Where's an economist to analyze whether these are full-time?

Oh, if only there were someone here who didn’t just re-write according to his bias from a one-paragraph blog post, but who actually dug into the numbers.

For example, as a cost-saving measure, many of these are likely to be part-time jobs — not least because of Obamacare not covering part-time employees — so while raw NUMBER may be increased, payroll and amount of total work hours may not have.

Almost every job in the film industry is part-time. Workers move from project to project. Virtually none are employed by the same company year round.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Where's an economist to analyze whether these are full-time?

“For example, as a cost-saving measure, many of these are likely to be part-time jobs — not least because of Obamacare not covering part-time employees”

Actually, no, boy.
Most jobs in the entertainment industry are short-term, running from a day to a week to a complete season of production.
Once an assignment is done, the workers move on.
That includes actors, writers, artists, construction workers, etc.
Only executives and senior studio personnel have full-time jobs.
It has nothing to do with Obamacare.

Anonymous Coward says:

Must include zero

Any graph that doesn’t include zero on it’s quantitive axis is misleading at best.

The rule is – if the graph doesn’t seem to show anything interesting when the axis includes zero, then the data is not that interesting to begin with.

Cropping the graph and therefore exaggerating it, just makes it seem like a lie.

Chronno S. Trigger (profile) says:

Re: Must include zero

Wait, you think that the graph needs to be 99% white space? That 405 at the top left of the graph isn’t 405 people, it’s 405,000. Extending the graph from 345,000 to 0 would make the change look like nothing at all.

Or is that what you’re saying? Comparing it from 405,000 to 0 would make it seem like piracy has done diddly squat to harm jobs.

Anonymous Coward says:

Why would you doubt that the job count has went up? After all they now have a copyright czar, ICE is working for them closing sites, the DOJ is activity working for them, Biden worked for them temporarily setting up 6 duds, Congress works for them passing bills, USTR is busy on their agenda with trade treaties, and the countless lobbyist and lawyers have made the entertainment field a gold mine for work. Even Prenda and Righthaven were having a go at it… only the last parties turned out to be highly temporary in job duration.

Geeze no wonder the job count is at a record high.

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