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Directors Guild of America is Fighting Edited Films
BoyPlankton writes "According to this article in the Salt Lake Tribune, film directors are gearing up to battle companies that are making a name for themselves selling/renting out edited films to consumers. The film directors claim that it's censorship and that it's morally, ethically, and legally wrong. The companies doing it claim that consumer rights trump the artists rights in this case, and that the artists don't have the moral ground to stand on because they already edit their films for T.V. and planes. Is this issue going to further erode our rights as a consumer, or will lawmakers take this opportunity to shore them up?"
The DGA is probably the only film industry body more fascist than the MPAA. They attempted to FORCE George Lucas to put his name at the beginning of Star Wars in 1978. He refused, they fined him, and he left the organization.
On the current issue, who do they think they're fooling? "Edited for television" has been around at least since I've been allowed to stay up that late. Studios chop scenes out against directors' wishes all the time. What's next, a fight against chapter menus because everybody skips to the Good Parts?
I think what the article is getting at is that the director may have something called "Moral Rights" over the work. Essentially this means that the item is a work of art that was produced for a fee and that the author of the work has the right to object to derogatory treatment of the work (i.e. censoring scenes).
The idea being that once a piece of art has been created the author has his/her name attached to it, and thus any treatments of the work done later that do not fit the artist's vision taints the artist's reputation.
I don't know how this works with film, because there are limitations to this when an artists produces work for an employer.. so it may be that the studio owns the moral rights, and I'm also not sure how this works in the US, but the UK and Canada both have moral rights. I'm not entirely sure as IANAL.
But.. here is a link for my karma-whore points... Moral Rights .
Greedo never pulled a gun on Han. In the 'update' Greedo drew first, thus making Han's shooting of Greedo an act of self defense, instead of cold blooded murder.
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Well technically, blockbuster isn't censoring videos, they're just refusing to carry NC-17 rated films (like Crash) so studios sell them edited copies because they still want to make money. (I wonder why competitors don't advertise they carry critically acclaimed films like Crash and Bad Lietenant uncut). I've talked to people who work at blockbuster who mistakenly think they're carrying the regular version of Crash. I think it had something to do with being a family oriented video store (so now the whole family can watch Crash together or something).
What I wish filmmakers would do, instead of seamlessly editing they're films for content, is to just insert squares over the naughty bits like Solondz did for Storytelling, so at least the consumer can easily tell the version they're watching is cut.
Also, you ever notice that now directors insert all the naughty bits into the 'Deleted Scenes' section of the DVD, like the commentary will say "Oh we couldn't include this or we'd get in trouble." Since the film is still an R-Rated film blockbuster has no trouble carrying it.
There is a large enough market here to justify the additional cost. There are a variety of companies in Utah that have sprung up to fill this need. The company in question has found people all over the country that want to see cleaned up movies. If Hollywood would simply provide the toned down versions that they have already made of these movies on DVD they could realize additional revenue.
This is not censorship. Censorship is when someone else decides what you get to watch. This is consumers deciding for themselves that they don't want to view particular content. I doubt that many /.ers can respect that, but they should be able to see the difference.
Certainly if I buy a book I am free to rip out any pages that I want. The magic of DVDs allows you to "rip out pages" without doing so permanently. Why hasn't this technology been supported by Hollywood?
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This is the traditional American concept, but it is not true in most European countries, where there is a legally recognized "moral right" that cannot be sold, but that always remains with the creator of the work. For example, no matter how much money you pay in France for a classic work of art, you still can't deface it against the will of its original creator.
So... let me get this straight. You're cool with the scenes that depict horrible acts of cruelty and murder, but a scene which is "stimulating" and "sexual" has got to go? There is seriously something wrong with your outlook on life.
For the record, I wouldn't want to cut anything out of Schindler's List -- it's so powerful and effective as it is.
Oh please, you call this hypocritical and you don't even understand the difference between the action and the message.
There is a big, big difference in the intent of scenes that depict horrible acts of cruelty and the scene I am talking about. This may be difficult for you to understand but there is even a big, big difference in the intent of other scenes that depict full frontal nudity.
When the soldiers shoot the old one-armed man, that is a horrible act. It is shocking. I don't think young children should see that scene. But then, I don't think young children need to even know about the Holocaust so they can enjoy their damn childhood.
But when they get into junior high school and/or high school and start studying World War II, I think Schindler's List is appropriate and the scene where the old-man is shot, for all it's horror, is not gratuitous. I'm sure it happened all the time. The part where the German officer is shooting randomly at Jews is also not gratuitous. The part where hundreds of people are running around naked is not gratuitous. That's how the inspections happened, and I don't see any problem with my kids seeing that. It's not a sexual message, it's the horrible truth.
But why the behind-the-scenes look at the German officer's sex life? Why do we care that he has a hot topless mistress? What is the point of that? There is none. You know how I know that? Back in 1996 or 1997, they showed Shindler's List on television for the first time, commercial free (sponsored by Chevy maybe?) and almost completely uneditted. You know the only edit they made to that film? A floating fuzz-spot to obscure the nipple of the girl in the scene I am describing. Spielburg himself gave a speach before the airing of the movie talking about the importance of showing the whole truth and horror of the Holocaust. So then why this edit? Because I think that the network (NBC I think?) and Speilburg knew that this scene was gratuitous and had nothing to do with the Holocaust.
Later in the movie, the same German officer (I am too lazy to look up his name, forgive me) confronts the Jewish servant girl in a scene that has a lot of wet-shirts and sexual elements. I don't think it's hypocritical that this scene also doesn't bother me. I'm pretty sure there were a lot of German officers that took advantage of their helpless female Jewish servants. It also is critical in understanding why he ultimately lets Schindler rescue her.
So, I stand by my comments. As a parent, I have a right to choose what messages my children see. "German officers get laid a lot by hot German mistresses" just isn't a message I feel important enough to pass on in light of the other serious and important messages in that film.
- JoeShmoe
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-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
3. They're afraid that multiple versions of a tape may cause consumer confusion that weakens demand for videos in general.
This general principle is why so few people are using US quarters these days. It's also why the Pokemon game was so unpopular. It's also why no one went to see the 20th anniversary version of Star Wars, and why no one bought the video version. It's why the sales of DVDs are approximately zero (all those scenes! all those options! too confusing!)