The MPAA

[Lord T Hawkeye]

I'd read some things about the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and the questionable amount of power they hold over the movie industry.

In theory, their services are optional but in practice, they have movie makers by the family jewels so to speak.  Not getting a rating or getting an N-17 rating will doom your movie to obscurity because Wal-Mart as well as Blockbuster will not carry it.  To make matters worse, there's no transparency whatsoever in the rating process.  You just put in the movie and they spit out a rating with no explanation whatsoever why you got that rating.  Furthermore, trying to appeal is ultimately futile.

This has "government enforced monopoly" written all over it but when I checked it out on wikipedia, it doesn't mention anything about government having a hand in it and that the MPAA was in fact "a United States non-profit business and trade association to advance the business interests of movie studios."

Anyone able to shed light on how they get away with this?  Common sense tells me free markets would thwart an operation like this but it hasn't.  Especially since evidence shows few people really pay attention to movie ratings anyway.  (be honest, how many of you never saw an R rated movie until you were technically old enough?)

[MrBogosity]

The MPAA exists because government was threatening to censor the movie industry after the Hayes Office sank into ineffectiveness. There's the constant threat of this if the MPAA doesn't put the screws on the movie industry.

[Travis Retriever]

Sounds like Fascism to me.

[MrBogosity]

It's fascism-lite to prevent major fascism. It still sucks.

[Lord T Hawkeye]

To them I say "What do you guys care what I'm watching at the theatre?  Don't you have a budget to balance?"

[BZ987654]

There was a movie made a while back called "This Flim is not yet rated" that does a very good job of explaining the MPAA and how it operates.