Posted on 07/10/2006 8:14:23 AM PDT by steve-b
Deleting swearing, sex and violence from films on DVD or VHS violates copyright laws, a U.S. judge has ruled in a decision that could end controversial sanitizing done for some video-rental chains, cable services and the internet.
The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit brought by 16 U.S. directors — including Steven Spielberg, Robert Redford and Martin Scorsese — against three Utah-based companies that "scrub" films.
Judge Richard P. Matsch decreed on Thursday in Denver, Colo., that sanitizing movies to delete content that may offend some people is an "illegitimate business."
The judge also praised the motives of the Hollywood studios and directors behind the suit, ordering the companies that provide the service to hand over their inventories....
(Excerpt) Read more at cbc.ca ...
HJ, you're missing the point.
When you purchase a DVD, you are not purchasing the rights to the movie. You are purchasing the disk.
If you want to use that disk as a coaster, or a frisbee, that's your right, you own that disk.
You do not own the rights to the data contained on it.
When you purchase that DVD, you are essentially purchasing the ability to view the movie.
Uh, No.
You are confusing SOFTWARE LICENSING with COPYRIGHT.
I can take a DVD and copy it and make edited copies or even pay someone to do that for me for my own use to my hearts content without any violation of any COPYRIGHT.
COPYRIGHT is exactly that RIGHT TO COPY, the owner is the only one allowed to COPY IT FOR COMMERCIAL USE... Once I own it I can do whatever I want with it for my own use.
I can take a book, and pay someone to go through it with a black market and make parts of it unreadable if I want to.. I haven't violated any laws.. I can photo copy every page and staple them together in the wrong order for my own use IF I WANT.. I have NOT violated any copyright laws.
I believe ONLY the logos, names of makes and models; are copywrited.
As a Protestant, You could buy a Ford, cut off the fenders, put on a Chevy grill and chop the roof and put on a Mercedes set of bumpers if you wanted too, it's your God-given right!
"As a Protestant, You could buy a Ford, cut off the fenders, put on a Chevy grill and chop the roof and put on a Mercedes set of bumpers if you wanted too, it's your God-given right!
"
But I'm an atheist! Could I buy a F-150, put the grill from a Dodge RAM pickup on it, chop the roof off and add a convertible top from, say a Porsche, and replace the bed with a shortie from a 1957 Chevy? Now that'd be a truck!
I like this game.
"I could pay my local literature professor to rewrite the end of The Da Vinci Code to better suit my tastes, tear out the pages from my copy of the book and replace them with the improved version, and nobody, nobody would give a flying flip that I had done so."
Yes but you would not have the right to then SELL the book as "The DaVinci Code", for it no longer is that book by that author.
Correct. That's the same conclusion others on this thread helped me reach. It's all about who owns the copy when the editing takes place. That makes sense to me.
"But I'm an atheist! Could I buy a F-150, put the grill from a Dodge RAM pickup on it, chop the roof off and add a convertible top from, say a Porsche, and replace the bed with a shortie from a 1957 Chevy? Now that'd be a truck!"
Of course you could, only the Catholics are stuck with no tampering.....
"Of course you could, only the Catholics are stuck with no tampering.....
"
Cool. Thanks.
Wait, wait, we've had this debate before -- it heads the same place as the Nabokov discussion.
Ah No, HJ, you Can't. You do not own the rights to the movie just cause you grabbed a 5 dollar DVD outta the bargain bin at Walmart.
You own the Disk.
Sorry, but that's the fact.
Here, if you don't believe me.
http://www.mpaa.org/Issues_CRresrs.asp
hahahah yea the MPAA is a reliable source on Copyright Law.... hahahaha good one.
Look, DVD players have been being sold for years that skip automatically content that it deems offensive if you have the feature turned on.. in 2005 congress passed laws making sure that it stays legal.
There is no violation of making original or modified copies of content you own, you just can't distribute them or profit from them. A movie company can no more force you to watch a movie in the order and complete sequence it was created than it can force you to read every page of a book in order without ever skipping a word or page.
Its a ludicrous notion, By your notion, "Scratin" a record is a violation of the copyright law... it makes no sense... Fast Forwarding and REWINDING are violations of the copyright law... etc etc etc...
HJ, Scofflaws will alway find a way around Laws, that's what makes them scofflaws.
However, you're mixing apples and oranges.
Please site me a link to these DVD Players that have been around for years (Manufactuerer, model, etc.)
DVD Players that can scan for blockable content is entirely different than illegally ripping a DVD, copying the DVD to your HD, demuxing the MPEG streams, editing the resulting MPEG movies, re-compressing the MPEGS into an m2v format, re-authoring the DVD, and then burning your New disk.
Only a moron would consider that process simply creating a "personal back-up".
What say you?
BTW HJ, if you're talking about ClearPlay, that's not against the law, and if people are so intent of "sanitising" R Rated Movies, then that is a good alternative.
However, you pay a fee for the subscription to the service.
That doesn't in any way violate any sort of laws, and does what you supposedly want, without having to rip a DVD.
If the simple and old tune of Happy Birthday can be copyrighted, why then the regularization of the spelling of words can be both copyrighted and patent. So send your two bits in already before the postal rate increase.
Stupid is as stupid does. What about editing for T.V.? I know that that doesn't mean much anymore, but at one time it did.
It is not so now, for the increase in term of the publik's indenturement to the grantee is neverending by the pleasures of the Court Supreme and the indolent Federal extortionistic legislators who to a golden cuff-link and a Prada heel well know upon which side the coin is buttered. Long live King Mickey of the Mice!
Tony Soprano: Golly gee, those darn FBI agents are at it again! They appear to have a vendetta against me and our organized crime family and they seem to want to prosecute us for our transgressions and perhaps put us into a jail.
Christopher: Gosh, I'll have to agree Uncle Tony. Why just the other day when I had to extract some payments from a customer of mine who was late in his loan payments, I am almost certain I was being shadowed by an FBI agent so instead of threatening him in our usual manner, I had to very sternly tell him that he had to make his payment "or else."
Tony Soprano: You'd better watch your step Christopher. That "or else" could be interpreted by your customer as a threat of violence and that could certainly come back to haunt us in a court of law should your customer have been wired up by the FBI. Now if you excuse me, I am going to have to get back home or Carmela and I will be late to the opera. Mozart's Marriage of Figaro is playing at the Met tonight.
Christopher: Okay Tony, you guys have a swell time and I'll see you at the office tomorrow. As for myself, I just rented season two of The Waltons and I'm eager to get started on the. Chow.
Do you have a problem with the ruling?
You can't buy a bunch of Leathermans, remove the blades, and sell them in England at a profit as special "legal in England" Leathermans without the maker's permission.
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