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Cutting out the Naughty Bits Ruled Illegal

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the people-against-goodness-and-normalcy dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Some of you may recall the lawsuit brought by several Hollywood directors against companies which edit movies for sex, language, and violence. The companies would trade consumers an off-the-shelf DVD for an edited one. Well, the CBC is reporting that Judge Richard P. Matsch has found that this practice violates U.S. copyright law, and 'decreed on Thursday in Denver, Colo., that sanitizing movies to delete content that may offend some people is an "illegitimate business." [...] The judge also praised the motives of the Hollywood studios and directors behind the suit, ordering the companies that provide the service to hand over their inventories.'''

1 of 1,329 comments (clear)

  1. CleanFlicks by Floydius · · Score: 0, Redundant

    As a representative of the aforementioned uber-religious, fascist, etc., I'm kind of sad to hear this. Up until two months ago, I didn't know such companies existed. My brother's fiancé bought him a copy of Vanilla Sky from a company called CleanFlicks. I was visiting him and I watched it. They do a really good job of dubbing and scrubbing, much better than is done on tv (the audio sync is really good, the editing doesn't seem like it was done on the first try).

    I probably wouldn't have watched the film otherwise, and I really enjoyed it. You can say what you want about that being stupid, naive, sheltered, etc., but for the moment, this is still the U.S. and it's considered a right to choose what you watch or don't watch. Anyway, I went to their website after reading this, and it looks like they've also been renting edited movies. Their site didn't mention the court case, but they were mentioned and quoted in the article. Despite their corny quote about the situation, I'm happy these types of companies exist.

    My main question is, what does hollywood have to gain from this? I never heard anyone freaking out about MST3K editing movies, but maybe this is a bit different. Still, it seems hollywood actually gains revenue from sales they might not get otherwise. I'd love to know their real motivation.