Looking Where The Light Is Good

This post by Jacob is a great take on the strategies used by the MPAA:

[F]irst, I'm going to tell you a joke.
Late one night, a drunk guy is crawling around under a lamppost. A cop comes up and asks him what he's doing.

"I'm looking for my keys," the drunk says. "I lost them about three blocks away."

"So why aren't you looking for them where you dropped them?" the cop asks.

The drunk looks at the cop, amazed that he'd ask so obvious a question. "Because the light is better here."

...

So why do the studios do it? Why do they hassle voters, piss off filmmakers, and risk losing awards (and the financial rewards thereof), just to prevent piracy in a group that isn't likely to pirate in the first place? It's because breaking international piracy rings is hard, and stopping individuals from swapping MPEG files on the Internet is impossible. But hassling people who love movies--be we awards show voters or just ordinary moviegoers--is easy, because they know where to find us. In short, the studios are looking for their keys where the light is best, even if it's miles away from where they dropped them.