Bill allowing sanitizing of DVDs enter US House

slashgirl writes “”The proposed law – which is opposed by many filmmakers and studios, who say it violates their copyrights – was passed by the Senate on Tuesday by an unopposed voice vote.” Rest of the story here.“

February 8, 2005 by Uncategorized 3

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3 Responses

  1. Walt says:
    February 8, 2005 at 2:55 am

    Sanitizing DVDs
    There’s more to this bill (which is really the less controversial aspects of last year’s omnibus copyright bill), but it’s too long for a comment.

    This particular clause, which might be thought of as the “Clearplay protection act” (Clearplay makes the technology for sanitizing DVDs during playback), really doesn’t bother me at all–except that it shouldn’t be necessary.

    My right to skip over certain words, pages, or chapters in a book, as long as it’s my copy of the book and I know that it’s happening, should be no concern of AAP. If I want to pay someone else to take the book, black out some words, and rip out some pages, that should also be my right (for a mass-produced item, not for the original work).

    My right to skip offensive cuts on a CD–or, for that matter, to make a CD-R that bleeps all the nasty words–should be no concern of RIAA, as long as it’s my copy of the CD and I know that it’s happening.

    My right to watch dumbed-down/cleaned-up versions of DVDs, with “offensive” words or scenes removed, and even to pay someone to flag those words and scenes, should be no concern of MPAA, as long as it’s my copy of the DVD and the “Edited for content” screen shows up before I play it.

    So, oddly enough, I have no trouble with that section of the bill.

    Reply
  2. Brian says:
    February 8, 2005 at 3:21 am

    All about the Benjamins
    I strongly suspect that the movie industry’s opposition has everything to do with them not getting a cut from ClearPlay, and nothing to do with compromising the integrity of films. After all, editing for broadcast TV and pan-and-scan (i.e., “fullscreen”) videos do as much or more damage to the content of movies.

    This really isn’t a censorship issue, unless we’re talking about it as a victory over the industry’s efforts to censor how consumers manipulate the playback of videos in their own homes.

    Reply
  3. opaqueentity says:
    February 8, 2005 at 6:50 pm

    I think Walt is right
    As long as they are not actually producing a new product (in that they are physically editing a film and producing a new copy) it’s not breaking anyones copyright, it’s exactly the same as pressing fast-forward.
    Now I seem to remember hearing that there were companies that did that as well, so maybe time to go after them.
    Maybe the Clearvision systems should have a screenshot saying something along the lines of ‘the directors etc of this motion picture do not endorse any edits made to this film by Clearvision’.

    Reply

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