I was initially well disposed to the Motion Picture Association of America’s  apology today for admitting its math was wrong, and that domestic industry losses due to film piracy were not largely the fault of college kids. In a study, the MPAA had said that 44 per cent of its losses were because of these students downloading movies; now it says the figure was “human error,” and that college kids are responsible for only 15 per cent of revenue loss.

I’m no longer well disposed to them for admitting their error. There are several reasons.

The original study was released in 2005, and has had more than two years to do its damage. That’s like accusing someone of murder, then two years later downgrading the incident to bullying, suggesting that the victim had understandably confused the two. But the damage had already been done.

If it were “human error,” who was this human and what happened to the human who made such a colossal blunder? This is important, because these numbers are being used to get the U.S. Congress to pass more draconian legislation. If the correct figure is one third of the original, what does that say about the rest of the report? Do we trust the MPAA’s assurances that the other conclusions of the report are still credible?

Where is the apology to the colleges and universities on which the MPAA had rained hellfire unless they cracked down on copyright infringement by their students?

More seriously, adjusting the figure further helps to damage the credibility of most of the entertainment industries demanding tougher copyright laws. All their figures are carried out by hired survey companies, whose methodology and reports are confidential, and therefore cannot be challenged. Yet these mysterious surveys are the basis of lobbying efforts to toughen up legislative penalties for those who dare make illegal copies of I Know Who Killed Me, Bratz, Norbit, Daddy Day Camp, The Number 23 or I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry. (And the MPAA calls these films “intellectual” property.)

Then again, many people have been swallowing a lot of nonsense created by the Hollywood producers’ lobbyists, who understandably conclude that if we go to movies as awful as those, we’ll accept almost anything.

Besides, many of these producers are the ones who are insisting that writers do not have the right to demand residual payments on their work when the producers resell their products on new media, a conflict that is a central issue in the current writers’ strike.

Saying “Oops!” is hardly adequate.