You'll have to forgive the members of the MPAA if their speech is a little garbled this week -- it's just that speaking clearly is difficult when your mouth is full of crow.

The source of the association's embarrassment? Having to acknowledge that a 2005 study it commissioned was wildly incorrect -- and that, as a result, the numbers it's been using as the basis for its crusade against illegal movie downloaders on college campuses have been way off the mark. From The Hollywood Reporter:

In a statement issued Wednesday, MPAA spokesman Seth Oster said a 2005 study the association commissioned from research firm LEK "incorrectly concluded that 44% of the motion picture industry's domestic losses were attributable to piracy by college students."

It turns out that only 15% of the industry's domestic losses came from college students, Oster said.

LEK is said to have attributed the discrepancy to a "data entry error" -- the firm apparently "attributed all films downloaded as films that would have been purchased" -- but that explanation has proven cold comfort for MPAA president and chairman Dan Glickman, who has begun an ominous "review of the association's 'relationship'" with LEK.

All this embarrassment hasn't prevented the MPAA from doing its best to spin the announcement -- as the Reporter notes, Association officials were quick to invoke the time-honored "yeah, but still" argument, pointing out that even the adjusted number accounts for $250 million in losses.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter