MPAA Sued Over DVD Screener Ban

bigjnsa500 writes "Fourteen small movie houses are suing the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) trying to stop the ban on DVD 'screeners'. 'It will chill the financing of independent films by limiting the awards they can receive', say the plaintiffs, who include Talking Wall Pictures, Sandcastle 5 Productions and Salty Features. They feel they are being treated differently because several 'specialty' indy film shops are still allowed to send out 'numbered, encoded videocassettes' to Oscar voters. This ban was issued by MPAA President Jack Valenti initially to stop the illegal distribution of DVD screeners on the Internet."

Comments

Re:Are they upset that the competition is limited?

[UnknowingFool]

All films including indie films were originally banned from sending screeners to voters of awards like Academy, Golden Globe, etc because of misuse of the screeners. Now the ban applies only to lesser awards (best cinematography in a film about sheep-herding, etc). Unfortunately, indie films do very well in these lesser awards. The major awards like Best Picture, etc. are already dominated by the bigger studios in terms of marketing and promotion. So indie films are complaining that this limits their exposure.

The indie films cannot offer a screener in these categories less face the wrath of the MPAA which controls the Academy Awards and a great deal of the movie industry.

sometimes you CAN skip the crap:

[Dynamic Ranger]

When I first got my DVD player I found that if you try to "skip" to the next "chapter" it doesn't work; you have to watch the commercials.

But if you hit "stop" and then "play" without powering off, it goes right to the movie. :)