This resulted in negative publicity for the studios and decreasing numbers of theater goers, who were uninterested in films that were sometimes so severely edited that they were incoherent.

[10] In 1924, Hays instituted "The Formula", a loose set of guidelines for filmmakers, in an effort to get the movie industry to self-regulate the issues that the censorship boards had been created to address.

Again, despite Hays' efforts, studios largely ignored the "Don'ts and Be Carefuls", and by the end of 1929, the MPPDA received only about 20 percent of Hollywood scripts prior to production,[5] and the number of regional and local censorship boards continued to increase.

Among other rules, the code prohibited inclusion of "scenes of passion" unless they were essential to a film's plot; "pointed profanity" in either word or action; "sex perversion"; justification or explicit coverage of adultery; sympathetic treatment of crime or criminals; dancing with "indecent" moves; and white slavery.

However, the growing economic impacts of the Great Depression of the early 1930s increased pressure on studios to make films that would draw the largest possible audiences, even if it meant taking their chances with local censorship boards by disobeying the Code.

[5] In 1933 and 1934, the Catholic Legion of Decency, along with a number of Protestant and women's groups, launched plans to boycott films that they deemed immoral.

[14] In order to avert boycotts which might further harm the profitability of the film industry, the MPPDA created a new department, the Production Code Administration (PCA), with Joseph Breen as its head.

[5] He also created the Motion Picture Export Association (MPEA) to promote American films abroad by opposing production company monopolies in other countries.

This revision allowed the treatment of some subjects which had previously been forbidden, including abortion and the use of narcotics, so long as they were "within the limits of good taste".

[30] In addition to concerns about protecting children,[31] Valenti stated in his autobiography that he sought to ensure that American filmmakers could produce the films they wanted, without the censorship that existed under the Production Code that had been in effect since 1934.

[29] During his tenure, Glickman focused on tax issues, content protection efforts, and increasing U.S. studios' access to international markets.

[46] In addition to this agreement with China, the U.S. signed more than 20 memos of understanding with foreign governments regarding the enforcement of intellectual property rights during Dodd's tenure at the MPAA.

[48] After the two bills were shelved in early 2012, Dodd indicated that Hollywood might cut off campaign contributions to politicians who failed to support anti-piracy efforts in the future.

[53] Former U.S. diplomat and Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Charles Rivkin succeeded Chris Dodd as CEO on September 5, 2017, and as chairman effective December 6, 2017.

[citation needed] On January 25, 2019, film streaming service Netflix announced that it had joined the MPAA in an effort to identify itself among the major studios.

[55] In September 2024, it was announced Amazon MGM Studios would join the MPA, making the seventh member in the entertainment policy group.

[29][32] The MPA has continued to pursue a number of initiatives to combat illegal distribution of films and TV shows, especially in response to new technologies.

[86] The MPA continued to support law enforcement efforts to stop bootleg production and distribution of videotapes and laserdiscs into the 1990s,[34][87] and in 2000 took successful legal action against individuals posting DVD decryption software on the Internet in Universal City Studios, Inc. v.

[92] The MPA and its British counterpart, the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), also funded the training of Lucky and Flo, a pair of Labrador Retrievers, to detect polycarbonates used in the manufacturing of DVDs.

[94] In the early 2000s, the MPAA began focusing its efforts to curb copyright infringement specifically on peer-to-peer file sharing, initially using a combination of educational campaigns[95] and cease and desist letters to discourage such activity.

[96] In late 2004, the MPAA changed course and filed lawsuits in a concerted effort to address copyright infringement on a number of large online file-sharing services, including BitTorrent and eDonkey.

[97] The following year, the MPAA expanded its legal actions to include lawsuits against individuals who downloaded and distributed copyrighted material via peer-to-peer networks.

[99] Swedish officials have acknowledged that part of the motivation for the raid was the threat of sanctions from the World Trade Organization, along with a letter from the MPAA.

[103] Users who received multiple notices of infringement faced "mitigations measures", such as temporary slowing of their Internet service, but the system did not include termination of subscriber accounts.

[106][107][108] In a case resolved in 2015, the MPAA and others supported the United States International Trade Commission (ITC)'s decision to consider electronic transmissions to the U.S. as "articles" so that it could prevent the importation of digital files of counterfeit goods.

[118] The trailer was later placed at the beginning of the video on many DVDs in many cases as an unskippable clip (not being able to skip or fast-forward), which triggered criticism and a number of parodies.

The study concluded that the industry lost $6.1 billion per year to piracy, and that up to 44 percent of domestic losses were due to file sharing by college students.

In 2008, the MPAA revised the percentage of loss due to college students down to 15 percent, citing human error in the initial calculations of this figure.

[120] In 2015, theaters began airing the MPAA's "I Make Movies" series, an ad campaign intended to combat piracy by highlighting the stories of behind-the-scenes employees in the film and television industry.

[121] The series pointed audiences to the MPAA's "WhereToWatch" website (later dubbed "The Credits")[122] which provides attention to the behind-the-scenes creativity involved in filmmaking.