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Directors Counter-Sue Movie Bowdlerizing Company

Posted by michael on from the see-you-one-lawsuit-and-raise-you-two dept.

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.

5 of 817 comments (clear)

  1. Question is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    is there a sister company called Dirty Flicks, which makes films consisting solely of all the bits they cut out?

  2. Obvious comment... by weave · · Score: 5, Funny
    Broadcast TV does this all the time.

    btw, I'm almost tempted to buy Pulp Fiction from them. I think the entire movie would be about 5 minutes long -- the scene where honey bunny is talking about blueberry pankakes.

    Nah, scratch that, they aren't married and are in a hotel together. OK, the boring cab scene.

    "I'm American, our names don't mean bleeep"

  3. How about pr0n? by NightWhistler · · Score: 4, Funny

    So let's get this straight: the directors want you to watch every part of the movie, just because they made it?

    So when I watch pr0n I can't fast-forward the 'dialogs'?
    Better start stocking up on good books... ;-)

    --
    PageTurner Reader: open-source e-reader for Android with cloudsync. http://pageturner-reader.org
  4. Tyler Durden Inc. by Perianwyr+Stormcrow · · Score: 3, Funny

    No, see, the bizarro version of Clean Flicks would obviously be a company that splices frames from pornography into "family" films.

    --

    What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey

  5. CleanSlashdot (Re:Side against the directors...) by Lars+Arvestad · · Score: 5, Funny
    In order to provide a child friendly SlashDot environment, I have taken the liberty to improve Critical_'s comment. Please mod down the original. Thank you.

    Unfortunately, these days I wouldn't be surprised. Why? Most media has gone way too overboard. Sure, when I'm with the guys its fine but if there are little kids even around in the house, I don't want to. Movie houses such as these allow movies to be played without the worry of junior sneaking around when watching such films at night.

    Anyway, I fail to see. How is hollywood gonna stop me now? Oh wait, some DVDs don't allow you to time advance!

    --
    Reality or nothing.