MPAA / Photo Credit: Motion Picture Association of America
WHAT IS THE MOTION PICTURE
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA? (In the Entertainment industry.)
What is the Motion Picture Association of America?
The rating system and breakdown by country.
Motion Picture Association of America the voice of
the global film and television industry, a community of storytellers at the
nexus of innovation, imagination, and creativity.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is
an American trade association representing the five major film studios of
Hollywood, and streaming service giant, Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion
Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), its original goal was to
ensure the viability of the American film industry. In addition, the MPAA
established guidelines for film content which resulted in the creation of the
Production Code in 1930. This code, also known as the Hays Code, was replaced
by a voluntary film rating system in 1968, which is managed by the
Classification and Rating Administration (CARA).
On November 1, 1968, the voluntary MPAA film rating
system took effect, with three organizations serving as its monitoring and
guiding groups: the MPAA, the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO),
and the International Film Importers & Distributors of America (IFIDA).
More recently, the MPAA has advocated for the motion
picture and television industry, with the goals of promoting effective
copyright protection, reducing piracy, and expanding market access. It has long
worked to curb copyright infringement, including recent attempts to limit the
sharing of copyrighted works via peer-to-peer file-sharing networks and by
streaming from pirate sites. Former United States Ambassador to France Charles
Rivkin is the current chairman and CEO of the MPAA.
History
Foundation and early history: 1922–29
The MPAA was founded as the Motion Picture Producers
and Distributors of America (MPPDA) in 1922 as a trade association of member
motion picture companies. At its founding, MPPDA member companies produced
approximately 70 to 80 percent of the films made in the United States. Former
Postmaster General Will H. Hays was named the association's first president.
The main focus of the MPPDA in its early years was on
producing a strong public relations campaign to ensure that Hollywood remained
financially stable and able to attract investment from Wall Street, while
simultaneously ensuring that American films had a "clean moral tone".
The MPPDA also instituted a code of conduct for Hollywood's actors in an
attempt to govern their behavior off-screen. Finally, the code sought to
protect American film interests abroad by encouraging film studios to avoid
racist portrayals of foreigners.
From the early days of the association, Hays spoke
out against public censorship, and the MPPDA worked to raise support from the
general public for the film industry's efforts against such censorship. Large
portions of the public opposed censorship, but also decried the lack of morals
in movies.
At the time of the MPPDA's founding, there was no
national censorship, but some state and municipal laws required movies to be
censored, a process usually overseen by a local censorship board. Thus, in
certain locations in the U.S., films were often edited to comply with local
laws regarding the onscreen portrayal of violence and sexuality, among other
topics. This resulted in negative publicity for the studios and decreasing
numbers of theater goers, who were uninterested in films that were sometimes so
severely edited that they were incoherent. In 1929, more than 50 percent of
American moviegoers lived in a location overseen by such a board.
In 1924, Hays instituted "The Formula", a
loose set of guidelines for filmmakers, in an effort to get the movie industry
to self-regulate the issues that the censorship boards had been created to
address. "The Formula" requested that studios send synopses of films
being considered to the MPPDA for review. This effort largely failed, however,
as studios were under no obligation to send their scripts to Hays's office, nor
to follow his recommendations.
In 1927, Hays oversaw the creation of a code of
"Don'ts and Be Careful’s" for the industry. This list outlined the
issues that movies could encounter in different localities. Hays also created a
Studio Relations Department (SRD) with staff available to the studios for
script reviews and advice regarding potential problems. Again, despite Hays'
efforts, studios largely ignored the "Don'ts and Be Careful’s," and
by the end of 1929, the MPPDA received only about 20 percent of Hollywood
scripts prior to production, and the number of regional and local censorship boards
continued to increase.
Production Code: 1930–34
In 1930, the MPPDA introduced the Production Code,
sometimes called the "Hays Code". The Code consisted of moral
guidelines regarding what was acceptable to include in films. Unlike the "Don’ts
and Be Careful’s", which the studios had ignored, the Production Code was
endorsed by studio executives. The Code incorporated many of the "Don'ts
and Be Careful’s" as specific examples of what could not be portrayed.
Among other rules, the code prohibited inclusion of "scenes of
passion" unless they were essential to a film's plot; "pointed profanity"
in either word or action; "sex perversion"; justification or explicit
coverage of adultery; sympathetic treatment of crime or criminals; dancing with
"indecent" moves; and white slavery. Because studio executives had
been involved in the decision to adopt the code, MPPDA-member studios were more
willing to submit scripts for consideration. However, the growing economic
impacts of the Great Depression of the early 1930s increased pressure on
studios to make films that would draw the largest possible audiences, even if
it meant taking their chances with local censorship boards by disobeying the
Code.
In 1933 and 1934 the Catholic Legion of Decency,
along with a number of Protestant and women's groups, launched plans to boycott
films that they deemed immoral. In order to avert boycotts which might further
harm the profitability of the film industry, the MPPDA created a new
department, the Production Code Administration (PCA), with Joseph Breen as its
head. Unlike previous attempts at self-censorship, PCA decisions were
binding—no film could be exhibited in an American theater without a stamp of
approval from the PCA, and any producer attempting to do so faced a fine of
$25,000. After ten years of unsuccessful voluntary codes and expanding local
censorship boards, the studio approved and agreed to enforce the codes, and the
nationwide "Production Code" was enforced starting on July 1, 1934.
War years: 1935–45
In the years that immediately followed the adoption
of the Code, Breen often sent films back to Hollywood for additional edits, and
in some cases, simply refused to issue PCA approval for a film to be shown. At
the same time, Hays promoted the industry's new focus on wholesome films and
continued promoting American films abroad.
For nearly three years, studios complied with the
Code. By 1938, however, as the threat of war in Europe loomed, movie producers
began to worry about the possibility of decreased profits abroad. This led to a
decreased investment in following the strictures of the code, and occasional
refusals to comply with PCA demands. That same year, responding to trends in
European films in the run-up to the war, Hays spoke out against using movies as
a vehicle for propaganda. In 1945, after 24 years as president, Hays stepped
down from his position at the MPPDA, although he continued to act as an advisor
for the Association for the next five years.
Johnston era: 1945–63
In 1945 the MPPDA hired Eric Johnston, four-time
president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, to replace Hays. During his
first year as president, Johnston rebranded the Motion Picture Producers and
Distributors of America as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
He also created the Motion Picture Export Association
(MPEA) to promote American films abroad by opposing production company
monopolies in other countries. In 1947 the MPEA voted to discontinue film
shipments to Britain after the British government imposed an import tax on
American films. Johnston negotiated with the British government to end the tax
in 1948, and film shipments resumed.
In 1956, Johnston oversaw the first major revision of
the Production Code since it was created in 1930. This revision allowed the
treatment of some subjects which had previously been forbidden, including
abortion and the use of narcotics, so long as they were "within the limits
of good taste". At the same time, the revisions added a number of new
restrictions to the code, including outlawing the depiction of blasphemy and
mercy killings in films.
Johnston was well-liked by studio executives, and his
political connections helped him function as an effective liaison between
Hollywood and Washington. In 1963, while still serving as president of the MPAA,
Johnston died of a stroke. For three years, the MPAA operated without a
president while studio executives searched for a replacement.
Valenti era: 1966–2004
Jack Valenti was the president of Motion Picture
Association of America for 38 years.
The MPAA hired Jack Valenti, former aide to President
Lyndon Johnson, as president of the MPAA in 1966. In 1968, Valenti replaced the
Production Code with a system of voluntary film ratings, in order to limit
censorship of Hollywood films and provide parents with information about the
appropriateness of films for children. In addition to concerns about protecting
children, Valenti stated in his autobiography that he sought to ensure that
American filmmakers could produce the films they wanted, without the censorship
that existed under the Production Code that had been in effect since 1934.
In 1975 Valenti established the Film Security Office,
an anti-piracy division at the MPAA, which sought to recover unauthorized
recordings of films to prevent duplication. Valenti continued to fight piracy
into the 1980s, asking Congress to install chips in VCRs that would prevent
illegal reproduction of video cassettes, and in the 1990s supported law
enforcement efforts to stop bootleg distribution of video tapes. Valenti also
oversaw a major change in the ratings system that he had helped create—the
removal of the "X" rating, which had come to be closely associated
with pornography. It was replaced with a new rating, "NC-17", in
1990.
In 2001 Valenti established the Digital Strategy
Department at the MPAA to specifically address issues surrounding digital film
distribution and piracy.
Modern era: 2004–present
After serving as president of the MPAA for 38 years,
Valenti announced that he would step down in 2004. In September of that year,
he was replaced by former Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman. During his
tenure, Glickman focused on tax issues, content protection efforts, and
increasing U.S. studios' access to international markets. He led lobbying
efforts that resulted in $400 million in federal tax incentives for the movie
industry, and also supported a law which created federal oversight of
anti-piracy efforts. Glickman stepped down in 2010.
After a search which lasted over a year, the MPAA
hired former U.S. Senator Chris Dodd to replace Glickman in March 2011. In his
role as president, Dodd focused on content protection, trade, and improving
Hollywood's image. He traveled to China in 2011 in an effort to encourage the
Chinese government to both crack down on piracy and further open its film
market. A settlement of a long-argued World Trade Organization complaint,
coupled with Dodd's efforts, contributed to the United States' agreement with
China in 2012 to open China's film market to more Hollywood films and to
increase U.S. studios' share of box office revenues in China. In addition to this
agreement with China, the U.S. signed more than 20 memos of understanding with
foreign governments regarding the enforcement of intellectual property rights
during Dodd's tenure at the MPAA.
In 2011, the MPAA supported the passage of the Stop
Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). After the two bills were
shelved in early 2012, Dodd indicated that Hollywood might cut off campaign
contributions to politicians who failed to support anti-piracy efforts in the
future.
In 2012, the MPAA launched the Diversity and
Multicultural Outreach program, as part of an effort to increase diversity in
the television and film industry both through employment and representation on
screen. Since its inception, the Diversity and Multicultural and Outreach group
has conducted outreach and partnered with more than 20 multicultural groups and
national civil rights organizations in sponsoring film screenings, festivals,
and other diversity-themed events.
Throughout his tenure at the MPAA, Dodd also
highlighted the need for movie studios to embrace technology as a means of
distributing content.
In June 2017, the MPAA supported the launch of the
Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), a coalition of entertainment
companies, including the six major studios, Netflix and Amazon, which would
draw on the MPAA's resources in an effort to reduce online piracy through
research and legal efforts.
Former U.S. diplomat and Assistant Secretary of State
for Economic and Business Affairs Charles Rivkin succeeded Chris Dodd as CEO on
September 5, 2017, and as chairman effective December 6, 2017.
Film rating system
Main article: Motion Picture Association of America
film rating system
In 1968, the MPAA established the Code and Rating
Administration, or CARA (later renamed the Classification and Rating
Administration), which began issuing ratings for films exhibited and
distributed commercially in the United States to help parents determine what
films are appropriate for their children.
Since the rating system was first introduced in
November 1968, it has gone through several changes, including the addition of a
PG-13 rating. The ratings system is completely voluntary, and ratings have no
legal standing. Instead, theater owners enforce the MPAA film ratings after
they have been assigned, with many theaters refusing to exhibit non-rated
films. An unrated film is often denoted by "NR", such as in
newspapers, although this is not a formal MPAA rating.
In 2006 the film This Film Is Not Yet Rated alleged
that the MPAA gave preferential treatment to member studios during the process
of assigning ratings, as well as criticizing the rating process for its lack of
transparency. In response, the MPAA posted its ratings rules, policies, and
procedures, as well as its appeals process, online.
According to a 2015 study commissioned by CARA,
ninety-three percent of parents in the U.S. find the rating system to be a
helpful tool.
Members
The original members of the MPAA were the "Big
Eight" film studios: Paramount Pictures, Loews, Universal Pictures, Warner
Bros., Columbia Pictures, United Artists, and RKO Pictures. Two years later,
Loews merged with Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer
Productions to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
United Artists briefly resigned from the organization
in 1956 over a ratings dispute, although they rejoined later in the decade. By
1966, Allied Artists Pictures had joined the original members. In the following
decade, new members joining the MPAA included Avco Embassy in 1975 and Walt Disney
Studios in 1979. The next year, Filmways became a MPAA member, but was later
replaced in 1986 along with Avco Embassy when the De Laurentiis Entertainment
Group and Orion Pictures joined the MPAA roster.
As of 1995, the MPAA members were MGM—which included
United Artists after their 1981 merger, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures—which
included Columbia and TriStar Pictures after their acquisition in 1989, 20th
Century Fox, Universal Studios, Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros. Turner
Entertainment joined the MPAA in 1995, but was purchased in 1996 by Time
Warner.
At the beginning of 2019, the MPAA's member companies
were Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures,
Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros. Netflix was approved as a new member in
January 2019, making it the first non-studio and the first streaming service to
be part of the organization. The addition of Netflix also helped to maintain
the number of members after the acquisition of 20th Century Fox by Disney. The
MPAA is looking to recruit additional members.
Content protection efforts
The MPAA's concerted efforts at fighting copyright
infringement began in 1975 with the establishment of the Film Security Office,
which sought to recover unauthorized recordings of films in order to prevent
duplication. The MPAA has continued to pursue a number of initiatives to combat
illegal distribution of films and TV shows, especially in response to new
technologies. In the 1980s, it spoke out against VCRs and the threat that the
MPAA believed they represented to the movie industry, with MPAA president Jack
Valenti drawing a parallel between the threat of the VCR and that of the Boston
Strangler. In 1986, the MPAA asked Congress to pass a law that would require
VCRs to come equipped with a chip to prevent them from making copies. Legal
efforts at stopping homemade copies of broadcast television largely ended,
however, when the United States Supreme Court ruled that such copying
constituted fair use.
The MPAA continued to support law enforcement efforts
to stop bootleg production and distribution of videos tapes and laserdiscs into
the 1990s, and in 2000 took successful legal action against individuals posting
DVD decryption software on the Internet in Universal City Studios, Inc. v.
Reimerdes. Following the release of RealDVD—an application that enabled users
to make copies of DVDs—RealNetworks sued the DVD Copy Control Association and
the major studios in 2008 over the legality of the software, accusing them of
violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. The judgment found there were no grounds
for the antitrust claim and dismissed the suit. The court later found that the
RealNetworks product violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
The MPAA has continued to support law enforcement efforts
to prevent illegal distribution of copyrighted materials online. The MPAA and
its British counterpart, the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), also
funded the training of Lucky and Flo, a pair of Labrador Retrievers, to detect
polycarbonates used in the manufacturing of DVDs.
Online file sharing
In the early 2000s, the MPAA began focusing its
efforts to curb copyright infringement specifically on peer-to-peer file
sharing, initially using a combination of educational campaigns and cease and
desist letters to discourage such activity. In the first six months of 2002,
the MPAA sent more than 18,000 such letters to internet service providers to
forward to users engaged in copyright infringement.
In late 2004, the MPAA changed course and filed lawsuits
in a concerted effort to address copyright infringement on a number of large
online file-sharing services, including BitTorrent and eDonkey. The following
year, the MPAA expanded its legal actions to include lawsuits against
individuals who downloaded and distributed copyrighted material via
peer-to-peer networks.
The MPAA also played a role in encouraging the
Swedish government to conduct a raid of the Pirate Bay file-sharing website in
May 2006. Swedish officials have acknowledged that part of the motivation for
the raid was the threat of sanctions from the World Trade Organization, along
with a letter from the MPAA.
In 2013 the Center for Copyright Information unveiled
the Copyright Alert System, a system established through an agreement between the
MPAA, the Recording Industry Association of America, and five of the USA's
largest internet service providers. The system used a third-party service to
identify content being distributed illegally. Users were then informed that
their accounts were being used for possible copyright infringement and were
provided with information about ways to get authorized content online. Users
who received multiple notices of infringement faced "mitigations
measures," such as temporary slowing of their Internet service, but the
system did not include termination of subscriber accounts. Subscribers facing
such action had a right to appeal to the American Arbitration Association. In
January 2017, the Copyright Alert System was discontinued. While no official
reason was given, the MPAA's general counsel stated that the system had not
been equipped to stop repeat infringers.
On December 24, 2014, the Sony Pictures hack revealed
that following a lawsuit in which the MPAA won a multi million judgment against
Hotfile, a file hosting website, the MPAA colluded with Hotfile to misrepresent
the settlement so that the case would serve as a deterrent. The settlement was
previously believed to be $80 million and was widely reported; however, Hotfile
only paid the studios $4 million and agreed to have the $80 million figure
recorded as the judgment and the website shut down.
In a case resolved in 2015, the MPAA and others
supported the United States International Trade Commission (ITC)'s decision to
consider electronic transmissions to the U.S. as "articles" so that
it could prevent the importation of digital files of counterfeit goods. While
the case being considered by the ITC involved dental appliances, the ITC could
have also used such authority to bar the importation of pirated movies and TV
shows from rogue foreign websites that traffic in infringing content. The
Federal Circuit Court of Appeals took up the matter, and ultimately ruled
against the ITC.
In 2016, the MPAA reported Putlocker as one of the
"top 5 rogue cyber locker services" to the Office of the United
States Trade Representative as a major piracy threat; the website was then
blocked in the United Kingdom.
Criticism and controversies
Publicity campaigns
The MPAA has also produced publicity campaigns to
discourage piracy. The Who Makes Movies? Advertising campaign in 2003
highlighted workers in the movie industry describing how piracy affected them.
The video spots ran as trailers before movies, and as television
advertisements. In 2004, the MPAA began using the slogan "You can click,
but you can't hide". This slogan appeared in messages that replaced
file-sharing websites after they had been shut down through MPAA legal action.
It also appeared in posters and videos distributed to video stores by the MPAA.
Also in 2004, the MPAA partnered with the Intellectual Property Office of
Singapore to release a trailer shown before films in theaters equating piracy
with theft. The trailer was later placed at the beginning of the video on many
DVDs in such a way that it could not be bypassed (not being able to skip or
fast-forward), which triggered criticism and a number of parodies.
In 2005, the MPAA commissioned a study to examine the
effects of file sharing on movie industry profitability. The study concluded
that the industry lost $6.1 billion per year to piracy, and that up to 44
percent of domestic losses were due to file sharing by college students. In
2008, the MPAA revised the percentage of loss due to college students down to
15 percent, citing human error in the initial calculations of this figure.
Beyond the percentage of the loss that was attributable to college students,
however, no other errors were found in the study.
In 2015, theaters began airing the MPAA's "I
Make Movies" series, an ad campaign intended to combat piracy by
highlighting the stories of behind-the-scenes employees in the film and
television industry. The series pointed audiences to the MPAA's
"WhereToWatch" website (later dubbed "The Credits") which
provides attention to the behind-the-scenes creativity involved in making
movies.
Accusations of copyright infringement
The MPAA itself has been accused of copyright
infringement on multiple occasions. In 2007, the creator of a blogging platform
called Forest Blog accused the MPAA of violating the license for the platform,
which required that user’s link back to the Forest Blog website. The MPAA had
used the platform for its own blog, but without linking back to the Forest Blog
website. The MPAA subsequently took the blog offline, and explained that the
software had been used on a test basis and the blog had never been publicized.
Also in 2007, the MPAA released a software toolkit
for universities to help identify cases of file sharing on campus. The software
used parts of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, released under the General Public
License, which stipulates that the source code of any projects using the
distribution be made available to third parties. The source code for the MPAA's
toolkit, however, was not made available. When the MPAA was made aware of the
violation, the software toolkit was removed from their website.
In 2006, the MPAA admitted having made illegal copies
of This Film Is Not Yet Rated (a documentary exploring the MPAA itself and the
history of its rating system)[ — an act which Ars Technica explicitly described
as hypocrisy and which Roger Ebert called "rich irony". The MPAA
subsequently claimed that it had the legal right to copy the film despite this
being counter to the filmmaker's explicit request, because the documentary's
exploration of the MPAA's ratings board was potentially a violation of the
board members' privacy.
Sources, References & Credits: Google, Wikipedia, Wikihow, WikiBooks,
Pinterest, IMDB, Linked In, Indie Wire, Film Making Stuff, Hiive, Film Daily, New
York Film Academy, The Balance, Careers Hub, The Numbers, Film Maker, TV Guide
Magazine, Blurb, Media Match, Quora, Creative Skill Set, Chron, Investopedia,
Variety, No Film School, WGA, BBC, Daily Variety, The Film Agency, Best Sample
Resume, How Stuff Works, Studio Binder, Career Trend, Producer's Code of
Credits, Truity, Production Hub, Producers Guild of America, Film Connection, Variety,
Wolf Crow, Get In Media, Production Beast, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros, UCAS, Frankenbite,
Realty 101, Careers Hub, Screen Play Scripts, Elements of Cinema, Script
Doctor, ASCAP, Film Independent, Any Possibility, CTLsites, NYFA, Future Learn,
VOM Productions, Mad Studios, DP School, DGA, IATSE, ASC, MPAA,
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MPAA / Photo Credit: Motion
Picture Association of America
