Motion Picture of Assoc. of America and Campaign on Public Awareness

      The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), is a professional association that is very interesting, and awesome.  This association began in 1922, by the presidents of major motion studios-Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayor, Jesse Lasky, and Joseph Schenck.  Their goal was to form an association to resist the demand for government censorship of films, and to provide a better image for the film industry while protecting the silent films in mainstream America.  Thus, this first association was called,"Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Assoc. of America before it became to be known as MPAA. Thus, this Association was led by General William Hays to create what is known as the, "Hays Code." This code protected the public from never seeing offensive material, as the Hays Code was enacted by the studios for self censorship-there was a review of all manuscripts to ensure of the viewing safety for the public. However, in 1960 there was major change bringing a new revision to the Hays Code so that film makers would be given freedom to their artistic creations. The new system flourished in 1966, by Jack Valenti, who was named the next president to the now MPAA.  
      This new system consisted of a voluntary rating system, it protected filmmakers so that they could create what they liked and also, protected the minors because their parents could be the judge of what their kids watched.  Today, the MPAA is represented under the leadership of CEO Chris Dodd, who is dealing with the positiveness or this digital age, but also the drawbacks such as copyright theft.     

          The program that that MPAA, enacted is the "Public Awareness Campaign," -this has a major influence on the entertainment industry as it is a program to combat piracy.  Piracy is the act of film theft and can be done on all levels as witnessed from some bootlegged videos of people recording with personal video cams in movie theaters to later sell on the internet.  It is wonderful to see that MPAA is taking such a strong stance in trying to protect artists and their creations from being exploited.  Therefore, please when you witness piracy report it, it saves all the artists as they should be the only ones with the exclusive rights to sell or license their works, and not the thieves.  

History of the mpaa. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.mpaa.org/about/history