(no subject)

[novapsyche]

Court Rules Against Sanitizing Films (thanks, byzantinespy)

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."

I had no idea this was going on.

Comments

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Cutting out the sexy parts of movies is the sin of Onan, and they're going to burn in Hell.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

There's a Mormon guy who makes a killing selling sanitized tapes in Utah, I believe-- I saw some kind of TV segment about it.

I'm wondering how this compares with/if it'll affect over-dubbing when movies are shown on TV?

[atdt1991.livejournal.com]

I've heard a lot about it, of course, because it affects my field.

What a relief.

[xterminal.livejournal.com]

I had no idea this was going on.

I haven't heard it mentioned in the news since the initial splash when a reporter found out it was going on-- this is probably fifteen or so years ago now. For some reason, I thought they'd been ordered to stop doing it years ago.

(I don't get it-- doesn't this get done by the studios themselves for TV consumption? If so, why did anyone see a need to create a whole separate company to do it again?)

[mehinda.livejournal.com]

I think that most movies are cut to a PG rating which can still include some swearing and some content that is deemed mature (at least by the standards of these companies). I saw one of these sites advertising their edited movies and they claimed they edited them to a G-rating. Personally, I would have loved to see the G-rated versions of favorites like The Godfather II or Reservoir Dogs or Last Tango in Paris.

I think the difference is when independent companies edit the movies and then sell or rent them for profit, versus a studio's cutting its own movie or allowing a network to edit a movie to comply with FCC regulations.

[xterminal.livejournal.com]

I would have loved to see the G-rated versions of favorites like The Godfather II or Reservoir Dogs or Last Tango in Paris.

Or Deep Throat...

I think the difference is when independent companies edit the movies and then sell or rent them for profit, versus a studio's cutting its own movie or allowing a network to edit a movie to comply with FCC regulations.

Well, yeah, I get why the studios are pissed (and rightly so); what I'm missing is why some moron decided this was a good idea in the first place-- and why more decided it was after they saw the first one doing it.

[mehinda.livejournal.com]

The two websites I visited were Christian in nature; their stated reason was to remove ungodly and questionable content from movies so they would be family-oriented.

I barfed a little in my mouth.

[xterminal.livejournal.com]

their stated reason was to remove ungodly and questionable content from movies so they would be family-oriented.

Revise the past to withstand the future, as an associate of mine once said.

I wish they'd just go back to being Luddites, and leave the rest of us alone...

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

At the risk of sounding crude, I'll just say Fuck Censorship!

If Mormons want to live in a bubble-wrapped world, they'll just have to watch their movies on network tv where nipples are still considered teh eval.

[dionysus1999.livejournal.com]

I love your icon. Not all creationists are as bright as Choka.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Chaka rules!