Posted on 07/08/2006 9:24:52 PM PDT by BenLurkin
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- 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.
I pray that one day soon we will sanitize our nation of these punk judges who are hell bent on keeping America's moral compass pointing south all the time.
This is such an obviously correct ruling it's hard to wrap my mind around the mindset of someone that thinks it isn't.
Please explain.
They are only going to hurt their bottom line by this. I record my movies off channels like TBS because they take out the offensive language. I would rather deal with the commercials rather than the F word every few lines.
If I could find "clean" versions I would buy much more.
It's amazing to me how many "family" films are filled with curses and nasty comments.
I agree with the this ruling. If this practice was allowed to stand, who knows what would be next to be "scrubbed" from movies.
Exactly. AS long as the studios are getting the same money for each movie, cleaning them up can only be a good thing.
Good! Films are pieces of art, and the director and producer should have the say as to whether they can be tampered with.
Thank you sir.
As I stated in my post, even if one breaks the law with good intentions, one ultimately still breaks the law.
After all the moral disputes and how they do this because they are liberals, all of that is void.
No it's not. "Cleaning" is an arbitrary decision made by the "cleaner". The real rub is where do you draw the line? What if all references to "speeding cars" (since cars kill) are erased? How about a particular word such as Christianity? The list is endless.
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.
Whether these discs are sold on the street in New York, or at a video store in Utah, they are still considered "bootleg copies" because they are not sold by the original company who put them out on disc (or VHS). You cannot burn DVD's or CD's and sell them. It is against the law and way you slice it.
Of course, the libertines would likely demand that the FBI break down the doors of the average citizens and confiscate their DVD players.
What about when a song that has a bad word in it gets bleeped when played on the radio?
Why is that different?
What are you talking about?! They aren't cheating the studios out of any profits - for each film they scrub and sell, they buy a copy of the original and destroy it.
It's a great service. Take a fun movie like "Christmas Vacation" - 98% of it is clean and genuinely funny. There's a small portion that contains the f-word that I would rather not deal with around my kids. These businesses scrub it and I get a funny, clean film, the studio gets their cut and the scrubber gets a few dollars for editing services. No one forced me to buy their editing service.
Television has edited for time since the beginning.
Even those handful of movies that truly are art have been edited for television. I was pleased to see "Citizen Kane" and "Gone with the Wind" uncut for the first time on cable in recent weeks. I agree it is preferable for movies of that caliber to see then entire work.
By and large though, most motion pictures are just another product to be marketed.
Except that you would have the choice to buy a clean version or the original. This ruling states only the original is allowed. No one is getting cheated from profits.
This, because of its irreparable injury to the creative artistic expression, from the article is a load of hooey!
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