The MPAA's Chairman and CEO, Chris Dodd, told the audience at an event for the Center for American Progress, that due to wide spread piracy, "The entire film industry of Spain, Egypt and Sweden are gone."
However, fact checking by Internet bloggers have found that the above statement may not be truthful at all.
The MPAA has become increasingly desperate in their attempt to get the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) passed through the House and Senate respectively, and Dodd's latest outburst has angered critics who sees increasing amounts of half-truths and exaggeration coming from copyright lobby groups such as the MPAA.
But blogger James Losey disputes Dodd's assertion that Sweden's film industry has gone kaput due to piracy, by simply pointing out several recent Swedish films that have had major box office takings in the last few years. Namely, 'Let the Right One In' and 2009's 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'. Ironically, the films were so successful that both have had American re-makes.
And as for the other countries, according to data from the UN and plotted on ChartsBin, and data collected by techdirt, far from being completely "gone", film industries in these countries have produced more films recently (possibly with the exception of Egypt, due to the political turmoil there).
It is also worth noting, from the ChartsBin chart, that the countries most notorious for piracy, China, Russia and India, are also major film producers in their own right judging by the number of films produced.
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