Judge Rules "Sanitized" DVDs Violate Filmmakers' Copyrights

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 10, 2006 - 1:34pm.

Los Angeles - A federal court in Denver has ruled that companies that sell unauthorized edited versions of VHS and DVD movies that remove profanity, sex and other content deemed offensive are infringing on the filmmakers' copyrights. The major Hollywood studios and the Directors Guild of America sued companies including CleanFlicks, Family Flix, CleanFilms and Play It Clean Video, who claimed that their products were protected by traditional "fair use" rights. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch said in his ruling that "what is protected are the creator's rights to protect its creation in the form in which it was created." Utah-based CleanFlicks and the other defendants were given five days to turn over all copies of their "sanitized" movies to the studios for destruction. CleanFlicks told The Hollywood Reporter that it plans to fight the ruling. While the ruling effectively outlaws selling edited copies of movies, it did not address companies like ClearPlay, which offer DVD player technology that does not alter a DVD but rather skips past, bleeps out or otherwise shields viewers from offensive content.

http://www.dga.org/index2.php3?chg=
http://tinyurl.com/k3thk (Hollywood Reporter)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-clean10jul10,1,51728.story
http://www.cleanflicks.com
http://www.clearplay.com