"Monday, May 10, 2004 Posted: 2:30 PM EDT (1830 GMT)
WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) -- Hollywood lobbyists will be busy this week as lawmakers examine smoking on film and legislation that could undo some key portions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The hearings, one in the Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday and one in the House Commerce Committee on Wednesday, make nice legislative bookends for the entertainment industry's current troubles in Washington as one focuses on content and the other on copyright.

The entertainment industry has been under considerable pressure to rein in indecent broadcasts on TV and radio, and now may face the same criticism for depictions of smoking.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, pushed for the hearing after several recent meetings between anti-smoking advocates and entertainment industry executives.

Hollywood's top lobbyist, Jack Valenti, is scheduled to testify along with LeVar Burton, co-chair of the Directors Guild of America's social responsibility task force, Madeline Dalton, associate professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School, and Stan Glantz, professor of medicine at UC San Francisco School of Medicine.

Dalton wrote a recent study claiming that smoking in movies entices young people to pick up the habit. Glantz is one of Hollywood's leading social critics who pushes for R ratings for movies in which the actors light up.

While Motion Picture Assn. of America chief Valenti has worked to get the anti-smoking message out, his trade group says it's a filmmaker's right to have the characters smoke or not.

Flammable issue
After tackling that issue Tuesday, Hollywood takes on a potentially more flammable one as the House Commerce Committee's consumer protection panel examines legislation that could weaken the copyright protections the motion picture and recording industries won in 1998.

The Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act would undo the current law's provision that makes it illegal to crack copyright-protection regimes.

The bill would allow people to bypass copyright-protection measures for "fair use" purposes.

The bill also amends the DMCA provisions that prohibit the manufacturing, distribution or sale of technology that enables circumvention of the protection measures and would direct the Federal Trade Commission to require that "copy-protected CDs" be properly labeled.

The motion picture studios contend that once a copyright-protection regime has been compromised, then it has no protection from pirates."

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT
http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movies/05/10/film.smoking.reut/

Great... we lose our rights to make edits of our own movies and all congress is concerned about is whether we have two more people smoking or not...

Is it just me or have the priorities of Congress seriously been a little... off recently?

Oh boy, another chance to see Valenti testify.

The hearing is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. EDT today. Go here for the live webcast.
http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/witnesslist.cfm?id=1186

The hearing is starting now. John McCain is the committee chair.

Smoking in music videos should be banned.

Jack Valenti is testifying. I loathe Jack Valenti.

I'm convinced -- movies with gratuitous smoking should get an R rating.
F U Jack Valenti.

Smoke This WASHINGTON!

Fooking DRM infested machine would not let me make a copy of my "purchased" DVD and then disabled playback of my dvd drive. Windows Media 9 is crap. Fire it up switch to Linux.

And now that I’ve calmed down, Washington, you need to get your priorities right and concern yourselves with smoking guns NOT cigarette for Christ sakes!!!!!

And if you got a problem with that, well maybe you can just get an inventor to harness all the SMOKE COMING OUT OF OUR $%^%$es RIGHT NOW from dealing with the ALL THE FRUSTRATIONS YOU HAVE CAUSED and then YOU CAN TAX THAT TOO & then we'll make enough to feed and clothe the WHOLE FRIGGEN WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!

geez..thank you congress..lets not oversee the war in iraq...lets not concentrate on campaign funding...lets do F**king SMOKING IN F**KING MOVIES.... what is the matter with these people.

war in Iraq....file sharing....smoking in movies rated PG.
Make your own priorities. Or how about multi-tasking.

Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace. The rest will be given.

"Smoking in music videos should be banned."
Carla, were you being facetious?
Yes, kids are influenced by what they see. But can you really ascertain why a kid begins to smoke? So many people around me smoked. It seemed like all the "movie stars" smoked. It was cool. My parents both smoked. I tried it. I didn't like it...End of conversation. My dad died from lung cancer.
My kids saw my mother smoke. They heard her cough. They watched her die from lung cancer... They don't smoke. After getting rid of Joe Camel, eliminating tobacco commercials, and trying to educate kids about the dangers and addiction to smoking, kids are smoking. Change the rating of a movie because the actors smoke? Please...

This means 101 Dalmations and The Great Mouse Detective would have been PG eh? Cruella smoked as did Basil in both Disney cartoons Oh and in Peter Pan the Indians smoked the peace pipe and if memory serves the oldest boy tried it too. For shame Mr Disney.

Imo, smoking should not be glamorized for minors. Music videos are tantamount to advertising. I don't have the stats, but I'm sure smoking decreased after tv advertising was banned. Smoking should not be shown on MTV.

As for movies... maybe it should be like swear words (why are these bad for kids?) PG 13 if brief integral smoking. R for SERIOUS gratuitous smoking.

But then, I'm a virulent anti-smoker.
If I had my way no one would be allowed to smoke within a mile of another person without a self contained breathing bubble so that none of the toxins escapes.

Consider this -- do you agree with the ban on smoking advertisements on tv?

And don't me started on state supported gambling.

Here we go again. "It's for the kids". OH BULLSHIT. Same tired line, same attempt to tackle a personal issue with a public assault on child protection.
I think that smoking should be left well enough alone. IMO it will not only drop the money from movies (a lot of parents won't let kids see an R rated movie), but it will also create a void where blockbusters used to be. LOTR (all three installments), the 'new' Tom Hanks movie, as well as the above mentioned CARTOONS.. well.. they smoke in all of em. Why should it matter. I smoke I guess because my parents did, and I've 'inherited' a bit of their addictive traits. Not saying it's anyones fault. Why can't the anti-smoking people just leave well enough alone. I for one am becoming sick and tired.. not from smoking, but from constantly being attacked by the anti-smoking league.
Just like with MTV, radio and Tv, it's a choice. CHANGe THE CHANNEL!! Don't purposely walk thru a 'designated smokinge area' and cough like a cartoon character just because you don't like what I'm doing. I once almost got arrested by the Military Police because I was standing on the line of the smoking area and some colonel's wife took offense. wtf?

Don't get me wrong. I believe that yes, I have the right to smoke, and yes, nonsmokers have the right to clean air if they so desire, but there has to be some kind of compromise here. We ALL should have the right to enjoy a good meal w/o being put upon by the ' other side' (depends which side you are on to begin with I suppose).
As for movies, they should just leave it the hell alone. It's really not bothering anyone, and while I have to agree, most of the time it's not crucial to plot or story, it's just part of the 'play', not a devious or inlaid message to hook kids on drugs. If I remember right, and believe me I do, they smoked and drank in movies as far back as the fifties, when the strongest language that could be used was "gosh darn" or some equivalent. We've dropped a lof ot the language requirements, so now they've got to attack smoking.
*sigh* gotta get a new soapbox, this one is falling apart.
ttmmm

Carla, I haven't seen that many music videos lately, but I can't recall seeing much smoking.
Neither my husband nor I smoke. So we ask people not to smoke in our house or vehicles. We both had parents who smoked, so we know what it does to the air and the walls and furniture and we just don't want it in a confined area. On the deck, fine...
I think that taking the cigarette commercials off the air was the responsible thing to do. It glamorized smoking. It sold a package - from the Marlboro Man to the sleek model for Virginia Slims. Watch an old black and white movie. The empowered women smoked.
But kids today are still smoking. So many young people smoke. My nephew and niece (21 and 23) smoke! Why? All of the information about the dangers and the addiction is out there.
I think the movie industry should be made aware that nonsmokers, like yourself, don't approve of "SERIOUS gratuitous smoking" in films. Maybe the industry should have to use a code to explain a PG13 rating in order to alert parents about the smoking.
But I don't think the movie should receive an R rating because of the smoking.
Remye: You are never going to convince a nonsmoker that he/she should have to allow your cigarette smoke to waft over the meal. Compromise?

sure lachatte, compromise.. I'll stay in the smoking area, non smokers stay in the non smoking areas. I know I know, the smoke goes all over.. there's only so much anyone can do. I'm not saying it's a perfect system.. yet.. but there's always time to discuss alternatives and find an equitable solution to any problem. Actually tho, the compromise is more toward space than spaces. If you don't smoke, then dont' take a table in the smoking section. If you DO smoke, don't take a table in the N/S section. I've stood in line for 20 minutes at restaraunt because the people in front of me were "offended" that all the tables available were smoking, and wouldn't take them. I've even jumped line because there were quite a few smoking tables available, and been hissed at, booed and called names.
Just MHO, hope I didnt' offend anyone.
If people don't LIKE cigarette smoke, then they shouldn't walk thru smoking areas. Most of these areas are away from main traveled areas, and yet, I've seen time and again (when it's CLEARLY posted as a smoking area) people taking a "shortcut" and moving thru them. Then they act all offended like it's MY fault they walked there. I've been coughed at, yelled at, preached to, harassed and given health tips by non smokers who were actually(IMHO) being twits.
As for "gratuitious smoking".. I guess that's all about definition. I can't really say what it is or isn't. My entire opinion on this is the whole line of crap about "it's for the children". It's NOT "for the children". It's FOR the adults who want to foist their own morality and health standards on the rest of us. No offense to anyone here.. believe me.. I'm as against kids on crack and teenage pregnancy as the next guy.. I think it's more in the education than in the preaching.
I happen to think that the "for the children" line is a bunch of smoke and mirrors that has been used WAAAYYY tooo much. I have to wonder how many parents see "it's for the children" and automatically vote or agree with whatever's being said w/o actually reading or researching the topic. I bet that number is pretty high.
Why should I, an adult who smokes, be unable to let my kids see a movie, merely because there is smoking in it? There's worse things in PG-13 movies.
ttmmm

Like I said, Remye, I grew up with two parents who smoked. Besides that, I played in smoke-filled clubs for over seven years. My hair and clothes smelled like smoke. I didn't like it.
If I go to a restaurant now, that has a bar, even with good ventilation, I'm going to have that stale, smoke smell on my clothes. I think it's a problem in a restaurant for nonsmokers. I'd rather go to a restaurant that had no "smoking section". However, I'm never rude to smokers.
New York. They don't want anyone to smoke anywhere. I think a restaurant or bar should be able to cater to smokers if they want to.

"There's worse things in PG-13 movies."
I agree. I just think if some parents view it as a problem, appease them with a code next to the PG-13 rating. Give them the information. That's all.

Lachatte.. point and counterpoint. thanks for your responses. Glad we can have an intelligent discourse about the subject.