Posted on 04/27/2005 10:22:11 AM PDT by SmithL
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Wednesday signed legislation aimed at helping parents keep their children from seeing sex scenes, violence and foul language in movie DVDs.
The bill gives legal protections to the fledgling filtering technology that helps parents automatically skip or mute sections of commercial movie DVDs. Bush signed it privately and without comment, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.
The legislation came about because Hollywood studios and directors had sued to stop the manufacture and distribution of such electronic devices for DVD players. The movies' creators had argued that changing the content - even when it is considered offensive - would violate their copyrights.
The legislation, called the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, creates an exemption in copyright laws to make sure companies selling filtering technology won't get sued out of existence.
Critics of the bill have argued it was aimed at helping one company, Utah-based ClearPlay Inc., whose technology is used in some DVD players. ClearPlay sells filters for hundreds of movies that can be added to such DVD players for $4.95 each month. Hollywood executives maintain that ClearPlay should pay them licensing fees for altering their creative efforts.
Unlike ClearPlay, some other companies produce edited DVD copies of popular movies and sell them directly to consumers.
In a nod to the studios, the legislation contains crackdowns on copyright infringement by explicitly providing no legal protections for those companies that sell copies of the edited movies, creating new penalties for criminals who use small videocameras to record copies of first-run films in movie theaters, and setting tough penalties for anyone caught distributing a movie or song prior to its commercial release.
The legislation also reauthorizes a Library of Congress program dedicated to saving rare, culturally significant works, such as home movies, silent-era films and other works that are unlikely to be protected by the big studios.
I can see some adults not wanting to see the gore themselves.
Besides lets not forget an UNDER 17 can go into a store and buy an "R" rated movie with no problem.
This allows PARENTS to let their children see a movie in the manner PARENTS can control.
Hollyweird has no legal or moral leg to stand on here.
They still have to pay for the license to show the movies in a commercial setting.
some other companies produce edited DVD copies of popular movies and sell them directly to consumers
Anyone know who these companies are? Websites? Thanks!
Thanks Mr. Presidnet. As the mother of an 11 year old girl and a 7 year old boy I am very grateful. Too many times we have had a "family friendly" movie playing when out of the blue bad language comes streaming out of a characters mouth. You can never get to the remote fast enough.
I wish it could be used on tv and especially commercials.
That is still illegal. This bill doesn't protect that type of physical editing of copyrighted material.
LOL! One of my buddies gave me a wallet with Bad Mother ****er stamped in the leather.
True, but the cost of supplying the airline market with special versions of movies should go down. I remember back when 747 flights to Europe had super-8 copies of movies, and they were projected onto screens at the front of each cabin section. The cost of customizable DVD presentations should be considerably less.
Wow. Does that mean we'll be able to see a copy of 'Song of the South' without being criminals? Did'nt think so.
Bringing Cable to DVD format. without TiVo :)
You answered your own question.
That would be awesome!
No he has not.
This is very simply putting into black letter law WHAT IS ALREADY LEGALLY PERMISSIBLE.
I can legally buy a movie, make a copy editing out the parts I do not want FOR WHATEVER REASON. (if I want starwars with only battle scenes that is my choice)
Essentially, the private individual is now able to buy the movie and then PAY EXTRA for a professional editor to do the same task. The movie IS PAID FOR, the editing is paying EXTRA.
I bambi were made today, they would show the bullet ripping through the dear's guts instead of the disney "editing".
Hollyweird is just upset that their platitudes of parental control are now reality.
Why the hell is that thing outlawed anyway?
I recall seenig it while I was little. (I was in Germany at the time, keep that in mind)
It's not offensive as far as I can recall. Not any more so than stories from Uncle Remus.
I guess some people just enjoy denying other people their culture.
Yes you can. And if you feel like sitting around chopping up a movie so the kiddies can see it, that's your business. Personally I just wouldn't buy it if I felt it would offend me or my family. But to sign a bill that specifically protects a company and an industry is no different to me than passing tariffs to protect domestic industries from foreign competitors. Also, it is simply not the business of the national government to engage in morality issues. State governments, yes. National government, no.
This is no different than my buying a brand new car, and taking it to a customizer to alter it.
GM does not get upset when I customize a car or pay someone else to customize a car.
I bought the DVD, I paid someone to customize the movie.
What this is doing is actually taking this entire BS out of the courts. This whole issue was litigated in a form when the colorization tech first came on the market. The creative sector was super upset that the studios were colorizing B/W movies. The creative types lost.
those companies provide the person with the original AND the edited version. The consumer pays for the original and extra for an editing service of their purchased original.
Except in that instance the national government does not get involved to protect a customizer from GM if the customizer is doing something to GM's product.
I don't have a problem with the hardware itself (beside the fact I believe it's a bit idiotic to buy this machine instead of just choosing not to buy the movie). My problem is the national government, specifically the legislative and executive branch, is involved in the first place.
Another question arises here. You apparently are concerned with the amount of language etc. that is in the movies. If the movie companies are looking at the numbers of a movie sold from a large picture view, what exactly are they going to think if an extra 500,000 copies of Pulp Fiction fly off the shelves? They're not going to get the message that perhaps it would be wise to cut back on certain types of vulgarity at all are they?
That's what kept me from being a script writer. I know F***, S***, A**, and Kn*ckers, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what G******* is. And thus ends another budding career.
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