Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Name	Motion Picture Association of America
Image border	MPAA Logo since 1967
Foundation	1922 (as the ''Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America'') 1945 (as the ''Motion Picture Association of America'')
Type	Ratings, anti-piracy
Headquarters	Washington, DC, USA (office of the Chairman and CEO)
Location	USA
Leader title	Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Leader name	Chris Dodd
Website	mpaa.org }}

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), originally the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), was founded in 1922 and is designed to advance the business interests of its members. MPAA is a United States non-profit business Trade Organization and administers the voluntary, but dominant MPAA film rating system.

MPAA ratings carry no force of local, state, or federal law anywhere in the United States. They only serve as a consumer suggestion by a group of corporate analysts. After screening films, the selected viewers arrive at one of five ratings. Theater owners agree to enforce corporate film ratings as determined by the MPAA, which in turn facilitates their access to new film releases.

The primary MPAA ratings are G (general), PG (parental guidance suggested/some material might not be suitable for children), PG-13 (parents strongly cautioned/some material may be inappropriate for children under the age of 13), R (Under 17 requires parent or adult guardian/restricted), and NC-17 (minors are not admitted).

As part of its campaign to curb copyright infringement, the MPAA fights against sharing copyrighted works via peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. The MPAA's anti-piracy campaign has gained much publicity and criticism.

History

In 1922, "Big Three"; Famous Players-Lasky, "Metro-Goldwyn" and First National founded ''Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America'', headed by former U.S. Postmaster General Will H. Hays. In May 1925 ''Independent Producers Association'', together with ''Motion Picture Theater Owners Of America'', accused "Big Three" for acting as a Trust and denounced Hays as their "mouthpiece". In October they filled claims to the Federal Trade Commission, providing a 280-page report detailing "Big Three's" tactics. The "Big three" made a few concessions to quell the critics but the monopolistic Studio system was eventually established and not brought down until 1948: United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc..

The group administered the so-called "Hays code" film censorship from 1930 to 1968. Effectively enforced from 1934.

In 1945, Hays was succeeded by former U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Eric Johnston. It was during Johnston's tenure that the name of the organization was changed to "The Motion Picture Association of America". Johnston inherited the stringent censorship responsibilities associated with the Hays Code, but added to his mission the promotion of American films, which were gaining in popularity overseas in the post-World War II era. Following Johnston's death in 1963, the MPAA's top post remained unfilled for three years, while studio executives searched for a successor.

Alongside the progress of civil rights, women's rights and labor movements, a new kind of American film was emerging—frank and uninhibited. Amid society's expanding freedoms, the movie industry's restrictive regime of self-censorship became increasingly outdated. In May 1966, Jack Valenti, former Special Assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson, was named MPAA President. That same year, sweeping revisions were made to the Hays Code to reflect changing social mores. In 1968, Valenti founded the voluntary film rating system easing restraints on filmmakers' creative and artistic freedoms, while fulfilling its core purpose of informing parents about the content of films so they can determine which movies are appropriate for their children. More than forty years later, the rating system continues to evolve with a changing society.

In 2004, after serving as MPAA president for 38 years, Valenti retired and was replaced by former Kansas Congressman and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman. Glickman led the association during a period of significant industry transformation, retiring from the position in the Spring of 2010. While the advent of the digital era created new opportunities for delivering movies to consumers, it also gave rise to a potential threat to the industry—online movie piracy. On March 1st, 2011, former senator Chris Dodd was chosen to be the new head of MPAA.

Ratings

Currently, the MPAA has 5 main ratings:

Unrestricted

G for General - Nothing that would offend parents for viewing by their children.

PG for Parental Guidance - Parents urged to give "parental guidance". May contain some material parents might not like for their young children.

PG-13 for Parental Guidance 13+ - Parents urged to be cautious. Some material may be inappropriate for pre-teenagers.

Restricted

R for Restricted - Contains some adult material. Parents urged to learn more about the film before taking their young children with them.

NC-17 for No Children Under 17 Admitted - Patently adult. Children are not admitted.

Other

NR for Not Rated - A movie either not classified by the MPAA, or unrated.

UNRATED An uncut release of a movie, usually of one that had parts cut to obtain an MPAA rating below R or NC-17. Not an official rating.

Structure

MPAA members include the six big Hollywood studios:

Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group (The Walt Disney Company);

Sony Pictures Entertainment (Sony);

Paramount Pictures (Viacom);

20th Century Fox (News Corporation);

Universal Studios (NBCUniversal);

Warner Bros. (Time Warner).

MGM was an MPAA member until 2005, shortly after Sony Pictures Entertainment's failed attempt to buy that studio. Other, smaller studios and distribution companies that are not members of the MPAA avail themselves of the association's rating and title registration services.

Anti-piracy efforts

Home recording

In the early 1980s, the Association opposed the videocassette recorder (VCR) on copyright grounds. In a 1982 congressional hearing, Valenti decried the "savagery and the ravages of this machine" and compared its effect on the film industry and the American public to the Boston strangler.

Publicity campaigns

The MPAA has promoted a variety of publicity campaigns designed to increase public awareness about piracy, including "You Wouldn't Steal a Car", a 2004 advertisement appearing before program content on many DVDs.

Legal actions

The MPAA has instituted legal actions against a number of peer-to-peer file-sharing sites (or BitTorrent trackers) used to upload and download copyrighted material like movies. Widely publicised examples include Razorback2 and The Pirate Bay.

In February 2006, the MPAA released the following statement:

The Pirate Bay

Responding to allegations of copyright violations, Swedish police raided The Pirate Bay, a BitTorrent tracker based in Sweden, on May 31, 2006. Some 65 police officers participated in the raid, shutting down the site and confiscating its servers, as well as all other servers hosted by Pirate Bay's ISP, PRQ Inet. Three people—Gottfrid Svartholm, Mikael Viborg, and Fredrik Neij—were held by the police for questioning. Three days later, Pirate Bay was fully functional again.

The raid became controversial in Sweden when the Swedish public broadcast network, Sveriges Television, cited unnamed sources claiming that the raid was prompted by political pressure from the United States. The Swedish government allegedly was threatened with WTO trade sanctions unless action was taken against Pirate Bay.

The Swedish government denied these allegations. However, a letter titled "Re: The Pirate Bay" from the MPAA to Swedish State Secretary Dan Eliasson, dated two months before the raid, hinted at trade reprisals. The letter stated, "it is certainly not in Sweden's best interests to earn a reputation as a place where utter lawlessness is tolerated." The letter went on to urge Eliasson to "exercise your influence to urge law enforcement officers in Sweden to take much needed action against The Pirate Bay."

In an MPAA press release, which has since been taken down, dated May 31, 2006, entitled "Swedish Authorities Sink Pirate Bay," Glickman states:

In both the 2007 documentary ''Good Copy Bad Copy'' and the film ''Steal This Film II'', Glickman spoke about the 2006 raid on The Pirate Bay and conceded that piracy will never be stopped. He emphasized, however, that the MPAA will try to make it as difficult and tedious as possible.

Controversies and criticisms

Disputed figures

On January 22, 2008, the MPAA admitted publishing incorrect figures in a study in which it claimed 44% of film industry revenue losses in America due to piracy were occurring at colleges. The study had been produced by the MPAA to put pressure on universities to crack down on illegal file-sharing and to lobby for legislation before the House of Representatives that would force them to do so. The MPAA's revised figure reduced the claimed loss of revenue to 15%.

Rating system

Copyright issues

Fight against online piracy

The rise of the Internet has further emphasized the MPAA’s role in controlling content, notwithstanding that some users may access content they otherwise could not, such as NC-17 movies not shown in theaters. Although the MPAA has won several victories, like with Razorback2 and through a series of successful lawsuits against public torrent websites, online piracy is still growing steadily with more and more participants.

Arguably, the effect MPAA raids have had on overall online pirating traffic is limited. For example, the day Razorback2 (a major server on the Edonkey2000 network) was shut down, Edonkey2000 network traffic remained constant. The MPAA, however, claims to have had a very successful history shutting down networks of pirated material and torrent sites and alleges that during 2006, for example, 75 were shut down.

Allegations of copyright infringement by the MPAA

In 2007, English software developer Patrick Robin alleged that the MPAA illegally used his blogging platform, Forest Blog, which is distributed without cost under a linkware license, whereby users must link back to his site. To remove these links, one must secure a license, but Patrick Robin claimed the MPAA removed them without purchasing a license. The MPAA responded that it was only testing the blogging platform and that the blog was "never advertised to the public in any way."

On November 23, 2007, Matthew Garret notified the MPAA that it was in violation of the GNU General Public License (GPL) for distributing a software toolkit, based on the Xubuntu operating system and designed to help universities detect instances of potentially illegal file-sharing on school networks. Garret alleged that the MPAA violated the GPL by distributing a derived work without making source code available. On December 1, 2007, Garrett notified the Internet service provider for the MPAA that, in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, he was requesting them to disable the offending distribution web site. The MPAA subsequently changed its site so the toolkit was no longer offered for distribution.

Monopoly

Because MPAA members are the motion picture industry's most powerful studios, in turn owned by some of the world's largest media corporations, critics of the association often raise allegations of monopoly. They also cite the MPAA's support for closed standards that hinder competition. Other critics, like filmmaker Kirby Dick, have suggested that films released by major studios (members of the MPAA) are given more deference in terms of ratings than films released by independents.

In Other Media

''This Film is Not Yet Rated'' is an independent documentary film about the Motion Picture Association of America's rating system and its effect on American culture, directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Eddie Schmidt. The film discusses disparities the filmmaker sees in ratings and feedback: between Hollywood and independent films, between homosexual and heterosexual sexual situations, between male and female sexual depictions, and between violence and sexual content.

See also

Australian Classification Board

British Board of Film Classification

Anti-copyright

DeCSS: decryption program for DVD video discs using Content Scramble System

Entertainment Software Rating Board

Lucky and Flo

National Association of Theatre Owners

Operation Red Card

Pre-Code Hollywood

Recording Industry Association of America

''This Film Is Not Yet Rated''

''Who Makes Movies?''

You can click, but you can't hide

References

External links

Category:Arts and media trade groups Category:Cinema of the United States Category:Entertainment rating organizations Category:Computer law Category:Copyright licenses Category:Organizations established in 1922

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Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Matt Stone
birth date	May 26, 1971
birth name	Matthew Richard Stone
birth place	Houston, Texas, U.S.
religion	None (Atheist)
occupation	Actor, writer, television director, television producer
years active	1992–present

Matthew Richard "Matt" Stone (born May 26, 1971) is an American screenwriter, producer, voice artist, musician and actor, best known for being the co-creator of ''South Park'' along with creative partner and best friend, Trey Parker.

Stone and Parker launched their largely collaborative careers in 1992, making a holiday short titled ''Jesus vs. Frosty''. Their first success came from ''Alferd Packer: The Musical'', subsequently distributed as ''Cannibal! The Musical''. From there he made another short title ''Jesus vs. Santa'', leading him and his college friend Trey Parker to create the animated television series ''South Park'', which has been on television for over a decade. He has four Emmy Awards for his role in ''South Park'', winning for both "Outstanding Programming More Than One Hour" and "Outstanding Programming Less Than One Hour".

Early life

Stone was born in Houston, Texas to Gerald Whitney Stone, Jr. (1941-2010), an economics professor and textbook author, and Sheila Lois Belasco (who share the first names of South Park character Kyle's parents). Stone's mother is Jewish and his father was of Irish descent. Stone and his younger sister, Rachel were raised in Littleton, Colorado, a the suburb of Denver, Colorado, where both attended Heritage High School. He graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and was their first student to double major in film and mathematics.

Career

South Park

In 1992, Stone and Parker created ''Jesus vs. Frosty''. It included four boys, two resembling Stan and Kyle, one called Kenny who looked like Cartman, and a fourth unnamed boy who looked like Kenny McCormick. Both ''Jesus'' and ''Cannibal! The Musical'' were made while they were students at the University of Colorado film school, studying under both Stan Brakhage and Jerry Aronson. After the duo released ''Cannibal! The Musical'', they were asked to make another animated short. They came down to two ideas: one a sequel to ''Jesus vs. Frosty'', and one about a character that would later be recurring in ''South Park'', Mr. Hankey. They chose to write about the four boys, and their decision ultimately opened the door for them to present a show (''South Park'') to Comedy Central. Stone and Parker produced 13 episodes for season 1. In 1999, Stone and Parker made ''South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut'', which gave the series prominence. The film's music was nominated for an Academy Award, but lost to "You'll Be In My Heart" from Tarzan.

Other projects

In 1997, they also released ''Orgazmo'', a movie rated NC-17. In 1998, they starred in (but did not write or direct) ''BASEketball'', another feature film, while being renewed for a second season of ''South Park''. In 2001, the duo announced they would do 39 shorts between the lengths of 2 and 5 minutes. Although originally thought to be ''South Park''-related, they decided they would do something different. The result was the shorts 'Princess'. The content was so extreme that it was cancelled after two shows aired. In 2001, they also created ''That's My Bush!'', another television series. Despite great reviews, the show was cancelled after one season for its cost, reportedly $700,000 per episode.

In 2004, they made a film titled ''Team America: World Police'' which many critics reviewed positively. In August 2007, South Park was renewed for three more seasons, 13, 14 and 15, each of them containing 14 episodes.

Stone is also a member of the band DVDA with Parker, for which he plays bass and drums. DVDA's songs have appeared in many of the duo's productions, including ''Orgazmo'', ''BASEketball'', ''South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut'', and ''Team America: World Police''.

On September 28, 2007, Parker and Stone acquired the US rights to the Canadian-made ''Kenny vs. Spenny'', which premiered November 14, 2007 on Comedy Central with ten old and new episodes.

Stone and Parker collaborated with ''Avenue Q'' composer Robert Lopez on a musical about Mormons titled ''The Book of Mormon'', which stars Andrew Rannells, Josh Gad, Nikki M. James and Rory O'Malley. It opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on March 24, 2011, and is being produced by Scott Rudin and Anne Garefino. It is directed by Parker and Casey Nicholaw, and choreographed by Nicholaw.

In April 2010, Trey Parker and Matt Stone received a "warning" for allegedly representing the Prophet Muhammad in a bear costume: "We have to warn Matt and Trey [South Park creators] that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Dutch director Theo van Gogh for airing this show." It was revealed in the next episode that the person in the bear costume was really Santa Claus and not the Prophet Muhammad; the "real" Muhammad was supposed to appear as well, but Comedy Central had him censored out against Stone and Parker's wishes.

Stone claimed to have been on acid with Trey Parker at the time of the 2000 Academy Awards, where they wore dresses popularized by Jennifer Lopez and Gwyneth Paltrow at previous awards shows.

Personal life

In 2008, Stone married Angela Howard. He has one son.

Regarding religion, Stone considers himself "ethnically Jewish", on account of his mother's descent, but grew up agnostic, and has no other adherence to the religion, identifying himself as an atheist.

Filmography

''Cannibal ''The Spirit of Christmas (short film) ''South Park'' (Television series; 1997–present) ''BASEketball'' ''South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut'' ''Even If You Don't'' ''Princess (Flash series) ''Bowling for Columbine'' ''Team America: World Police'' ''This Film Is Not Yet Rated'' ''Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo'' ''Kenny vs. Spenny'' ''Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage''

Year	! Production	! Role	! Other notes
1992	The Spirit of Christmas (short film)>Jesus vs. Frosty''	Director, Actor, Producer, Writer
1994	The Musical''	Actor, Producer
rowspan="2"	1995	Jesus vs. Santa'' ||	Director, Actor, Producer, Writer
''Your Studio and You''	Actor, Writer
rowspan="2"	1997	|	Co-creator, Voice actor, Writer, Director, Executive producer
''Orgazmo''	Actor, Writer, Producer
1998	|	Actor
rowspan="2"	1999	|	Voice actor, Writer, Producer
''Terror Firmer''	Actor
2000	|	Director	Music Video
rowspan="2"	2001	Princess'' ||	Director, Writer, Voice actor, Producer	Animation shorts
''That's My Bush!'' (Television Series; 2001)	Co-creator, Writer, Executive producer
2003	|	Interviewee
2004	|	Writer, Voice actor, Producer
2006	|	Interviewee
2007	|	Actor
2007	|	Executive Producer
2010	|	Himself

Voices on ''South Park''

{| |- style="vertical-align: top;" |

Kyle Broflovski

Kenny McCormick

Gerald Broflovski

Stuart McCormick

Craig Tucker

Butters Stotch

Jimbo Kern

Pip Pirrup (1997–2010)

|

Skeeter

Terrance

Saddam Hussein

Kevin Stoley

Priest Maxi

Tweek Tweak

Mr. Adler

Various

|}

References

External links

Matt Stone and Trey Parker at the Official South Park Website

Fresh Air Interview

Category:1971 births Category:American animators Category:American atheists Category:American film actors Category:American film producers Category:American Jews Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American screenwriters Category:American skeptics Category:American television producers Category:American voice actors Category:Critics of Scientology Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Jewish actors Category:Living people Category:Peabody Award winners Category:People from Denver Metro Area Category:People from Houston, Texas Category:South Park Category:University of Colorado at Boulder alumni Category:Jewish film producers Category:Jewish atheists

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