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Directors Counter-Sue Movie Bowdlerizing Company
crazyhorse44 writes "The lesser of two evils? 'The Directors Guild of America is suing more than a dozen companies that delete scenes depicting violence, sex and profanity from Hollywood films, saying the process violates federal copyright law. The lawsuit, filed Friday in Denver, was a response to a suit filed last month by Clean Flicks of Colorado, which is part of the Utah-based rental chain Clean Flicks. The company had asked a judge to rule its practice legal, despite protests from several well-known directors, including Robert Redford and Steven Spielberg. Clean Flicks argues it doesn't violate copyright law because it purchases a new copy each time it edits a film and because customers are technically owners of the videos through a cooperative arrangement. The edited tapes also carry a disclaimer that the film was edited for content, the company says.' Whose side to take? The DGA is defending the desecration of many of our favorite films, while Clean Flicks is strongly advocating for the copyright rights of the consumer to edit and/or alter the media that they purchase. At the extreme you have folks who want to eliminate all traces of sex and violence from the popular media against the movie industry who wants to eliminate all property rights of the consumer. Whose side would you take? Links at Salon, USA Today and FindLAW." We've had previous stories here and here.
Seems fair enough to me if scenes are cut and the tape tells you that it has been done so, it is another issue if the company places a digital beard on captian kirk for the hell of it, that is simply confusing the intellectual property of the owners. On a side note, I noticed in the awards section for /. there hasnt been an award for /. in 2 years, could it be these repeating stories?
I think it has been pretty well established that there is no legal basis to sue a Value-Added service industry for providing a service when no copywrite has been abridged and everyone (including the directors) makes their money. So what's this really all about? Its about these directors playing to the brainless herd that is the Left in this nation who worship at the altar of Hollywood and its values. It's about these directors trying to "stand up to the little guy" for daring to question these "values" in their films -- like they are some sort of dignified sincere hero/artists full of character -- instead of the corporate shills they really are. Unfortunately for them, they have made so many "stand up to the big guy" films that even the dullest bulb at the Hollywood slop bucket can see what's really going on between some Mom & Pop film-editing joint and the Evil Capitalist Hollywood Machine(tm).