The MPAA has admitted to making a mistake on the levels of piracy committed by college students.  In their 2005 landmark study on movie piracy (PDF),  the MPAA stated that piracy committed by college students accounted for 44 percent of all piracy.

Now, due to human error, that figure was found to be wrong.

Hollywood laid much of the blame for illegal movie downloading on college students. Now, it says its math was wrong.

In a 2005 study it commissioned, the Motion Picture Association of America claimed that 44 percent of the industry’s domestic losses came from illegal downloading of movies by college students, who often have access to high-bandwidth networks on campus.

The MPAA has used the study to pressure colleges to take tougher steps to prevent illegal file-sharing and to back legislation currently before the House of Representatives that would force them to do so.

But now the MPAA, which represents the U.S. motion picture industry, has told education groups a “human error” in that survey caused it to get the number wrong. It now blames college students for about 15 percent of revenue loss.

Havocscope listed the 44 percent figure on its Movie Piracy page, and we have changed the information to properly reflect the correct figures.