Court Tells Film Cleansers To Cut Out The Cutting Out

[rockyhors]

The cutting out of nudity, offensive language, sexual situations, violence, and any other content deemed 'family-unfriendly' by the censoring parties, that is. It all began innocuously enough in 1998 when Sunrise Family Video of American Fork, Utah began editing out the nude scenes from the blockbuster "Titanic" for an additional $5 fee to customers. Soon after, other companies joined the fray, whittling out naughty content from popular films for rental and resale. In the news, a federal judge in Denver, CO ruled Thursday that any and all such editing is a violation of standing U.S. copyright laws.

In what might have been seen as a clever preemptive move, Cleanflicks of CO actually started a suit/counter suit war with several prominent Hollywood directors in August 2002, naming 16 defendants in an attempt to force a ruling on the legality of what the company was doing. The Directors Guild of America promptly counter-sued, naming a dozen other companies as well. It should be noted that none of the companies involved was ever accused of illegally copying movies, each company has maintained an inventory of the original movies, one-for-one; buying one 'dirty' version for each 'clean' version they sold. The case was entirely about the altering of the product.

U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch ordered that all the companies named stop "producing, manufacturing, creating" as well as renting edited movies. Those businesses also must hand over all inventory to the movie studios within five days of the ruling.

While Sunrise Family Video, CleanFlicks, CleanFilms, Play It Clean Video, and others were dubbing sanitized versions of films for sale and rent, other companies began developing software for DVD players that would skip objectionable content automatically. The companies producing the DVD self-editing playback software, among them Trilogy Studios, Family Shield, and Clear Play; were no longer named in the suit, shielded by the Family Movie Act of 2005 which legalized such technologies for private consumer use.

Following the verdict, DGA President Michael Apted said that movie directors should feel "vindicated" by the ruling. "Audiences can now be assured that the films they buy or rent are the vision of the filmmakers who made them and not the arbitrary choices of a third-party editor," he said in a statement to the Salt Lake Tribune.

Also speaking to the Salt Lake Tribune, chief executive of CleanFlicks in American Fork Ray Lines vowed to "continue to fight."


http://www.sltrib.com/ci_4026743
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/024...s,39029,1.html


Author's note: In the digital age, we have begun to see more and more copyright cases that are about control of the property rather than unauthorized copying/distribution. While removing parts or switching them around or any number of manipulations one might do to someone else's work might seem harmless, it is in fact an infringement on their copyright. Fanfiction, photo scanning/photoshopping, music remixes, etc.; the control of one's intellectual property and how it is perceived/disseminated has always been a part of copyright law, only now is it becoming so important that this be understood.

http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

[Chief]

Thanks mate - good post

[ms12345678]

I had no idea this sort of editing went on!

Thanks for the info.

[computer2slow]

I say the editing was a good thing. Calm down and stop poking me with the pitch forks. I say that if it means I can have my movies with all the good stuff and not have it taking out so they can get a PG or PG-13 like a lot of movies get. It's getting pretty redicous to me when a horror movie isn't a R or a what is pretty much a sex comedy is PG.