Court rules against sanitizing films

Cthippo · 9 Jul 2006

Assocated Press said:

SALT LAKE CITY - Sanitizing movies on DVD or VHS tape violates federal copyright laws, and several companies that scrub films must turn over their inventory to Hollywood studios, an appeals judge ruled.

Editing movies to delete objectionable language, sex and violence is an "illegitimate business" that hurts Hollywood studios and directors who own the movie rights, said U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch in a decision released Thursday in Denver.

"Their (studios and directors) objective ... is to stop the infringement because of its irreparable injury to the creative artistic expression in the copyrighted movies," the judge wrote. "There is a public interest in providing such protection."

Matsch ordered the companies named in the suit, including CleanFlicks, Play It Clean Video and CleanFilms, to stop "producing, manufacturing, creating" and renting edited movies. The businesses also must turn over their inventory to the movie studios within five days of the ruling.

"We're disappointed," CleanFlicks chief executive Ray Lines said. "This is a typical case of David vs. Goliath, but in this case, Hollywood rewrote the ending. We're going to continue to fight."

CleanFlicks produces and distributes sanitized copies of Hollywood films on DVD by burning edited versions of movies onto blank discs. The scrubbed films are sold over the Internet and to video stores.

As many as 90 video stores nationwide — about half of them in Utah — purchase movies from CleanFlicks, Lines said. It's unclear how the ruling may effect those stores.

The controversy began in 1998 when the owners of Sunrise Family Video began deleting scenes from "Titanic" that showed a naked Kate Winselt.

The scrubbing caused an uproar in Hollywood, resulting in several lawsuits and countersuits.

Directors can feel vindicated by the ruling, said
Michael Apted, president of the Director's Guild of America.

"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.
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Not sure what to make of this one

DXR_13KE · 9 Jul 2006

you do have the choice to buy a scrubbed film or not, if you want to see terminator 2 without any violence or indecent act you have a company that does that for you.

the problem would be that you would only get a 20 minutes film.

if you dont like it, dont buy it, let the company die of starvation.

Nexxo · 9 Jul 2006

Exactly. Moreover, DVD technology allows you to play different versions of the same film from one DVD. why not simply offer the consumer the choice to play back either the "sanitised" or the "full frontal" version? That way the film is technically present on DVD in its full, unedited length. You could even password protect the option to protect the kiddies.

DXR_13KE · 9 Jul 2006

Nexxo said:

Exactly. Moreover, DVD technology allows you to play different versions of the same film from one DVD. why not simply offer the consumer the choice to play back either the "sanitised" or the "full frontal" version? That way the film is technically present on DVD in its full, unedited length. You could even password protect the option to protect the kiddies.
Click to expand...

no more, no less, everyone is happy

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Court rules against sanitizing films

Cthippo Can't mod my way out of a paper bag

DXR_13KE BananaModder

Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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Court rules against sanitizing films

Cthippo Can't mod my way out of a paper bag

DXR_13KE BananaModder

Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

DXR_13KE BananaModder

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