July 22, 2004

House committee votes 18-9 for Family Movie Act

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com

WASHINGTON -- Fledgling technology that helps parents prevent children from watching movie scenes depicting sex, violence or foul language got a boost Wednesday from the House Judiciary Subcommittee.

The panel voted 18-9 in favor of the Family Movie Act, which would assure manufacturers of DVD players and other devices using such technology that they would not be violating copyrights of the Hollywood producers of movies.
-snip-

Hollywood executives have complained that ClearPlay's technology represents unauthorized editing of their movies. They maintain that ClearPlay should pay them licensing fees for altering their creative efforts.

"You're getting a doctored, reinterpretation of the product," said Dan McGinn, a spokesman for the Directors Guild of America, which has sued ClearPlay in federal court in Colorado alleging copyright violations. "What they have is a new version of the product. It should be licensed."

-snip-

The bill is House Resolution 4586

Please go to Hollywood Reporter and read the full article.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com

whatever. So, whenever a movie is "formatted for content" on network TV or even if you walk out of a movie halfway through it is considered a "violation of copyright?"
give me a break.

Alas, Hollywood's reaction to all this, given what they're putting out, tends to reinforce the notion in some corners that they are anti-family, and also to reinforce the notion that they're using the "shield" of copyright law to shove their "filth" and "smut" down everybody's throats. Especially given some recent studies that R-rated fare has been steadily increasing over the last few years.

But then, the real issue, from ALL sides of the aisle, all boils down to that famous duo of hypocrisy and flapdoodle.

I'm glad this story is finally getting an airing. Funny how they changed the name of the bill. Can't remember what it was called before.

Why shouldn't parents have the option to block that stuff from their kids? If I were a parent, I'd use it.

"What they have is a new version of the product. It should be licensed."

Give me a fricken break.

(Maybe it's just my browser, but if not, can someone please reduce the extreme horizontalness of this article?)

Per 'TheSherminator': Apparently, I've noticed the "extreme horizontalness" on Netscape but not Internet Explorer.

"You're getting a doctored, reinterpretation of the product,"
"What they have is a new version of the product. It should be licensed."

Either it's the same, and I don't see the problem, or it's new and then... well... if it's news I don't see the problem either. This doesn't seem to be logical to me.

The irony of it all is Hollywood wants, and is getting legislators to do it's bidding, but they can't control them enough to stop this from going through.

Sherm, I like that term "extreme horizontalness ". It's better than saying " Da dang picture is too wide!"
I noticed it earlier but now it looks ok.

I was against this idea before, but after having thought about it..why not install it in DVD players? It doesn't matter to me, I just won't activate it on the DVD's menu. At the same time Mom and Dad can set it up and watch a movie with the kids.

I'm not sure how it would work without screwing up the storyline (what little there may be). I can imagine a scene where actor bob stabs actor ralph in a nasty way and it get's edited out. Does a message come up on the screen a la silent movies saying " bob just got bumped off by ralph"?

Considering the stuff I see on HBO, Showtime et al and also the movies available at the rental places..it's getting harder and harder to find movies the whole family can watch without having to do some fancy explaining to the kids or issuing out blindfolds.

"It's better than saying " Da dang picture is too wide!" "

Somethin's wrong with this here picture box! But seriously folks.. [insert witty line]

I agree pinemikey. It could pose some problems, but then again.. it is still up to you what is shown on your TV. If you don't like the problem, then you don't use it. If nobody likes it, then it simply won't work out. I see this as a reasonable attempt to address an issue, and nothing more or less. Time will tell if it works out or not.

I'm waiting for the one that will allow me to cut out commercials--especially the one for the "male enhancement" pill; especially, since "The Science Channel" (we're not Discovery anymore!) likes to run it twice every commercial break. It looks like it makes that guy even more stupid than he was before.

Yeah, but what if they make a DVD player that has this thing on by default with no explanation of how to turn it off. What if Orrin Hatch gets a law passed to mandate this in all DVD players, regardless of who's buying them.

People, there's an easier way to keep your kids from seeing sex and violence: simply don't buy the movie. That's why they put the ratings on the back and why they've started putting explanations of why the movie got that rating.

There's no way they can make an electronic toy that I can't figure out ....and I don't need no stinking manual! Well, not at first. C'mon, NiceGuy...no fella worth his salt is going to admit he can't program a vcr or now a dvd player. Besides if you don't know how to turn if off, just ask your kids. Har har

FRANKLEY I THINK THEY SHOULD BE TEACHING KIDS ABOUT SEX AND VILENCE AT AN EARLY AGE INSTEAD OF TRYING TO SHELTER THEM FROM IT THERE GOING TO SEE IT ANYWAYS WHY WAIT AND RISK HAVEING YOUR KIDS LEARN IT THE WRONG WAY PERSONALY I DONT GET THE SHELTERING THIS TO ME IT MAKES NO SENCE. "sorry for the caps but im not retyping the whole thing again"

My mistake: The 'horizontalness' is on I.E. -- and the text of the link is divided by line on Netscape.

Medwardl,

I agree that children should be taught about sex at violence while they are young (but not too young). But my problem with what you said is that you seem to think that movies are a way to educate kids about sex and violence, and that's way off.

However, if you did teach your kids well, then it really shouldn't matter what they watch...but parenting isn't really an exact science. So when in doubt, take the crap away from them and make sure you, not the tv, are the educator.

W-B, I was using firebird. It's gone now though =)

pinemikey--My husband can take apart a computer and put it back together, and he can do almost any work on our house or our cars--but try as I might, I cannot get him to figure out how to program a VCR, or use caller ID. Must be a mental block.

Dat bloody blinking time....blinkin blinkin...driving me right 'round da bend.

So... theyre mad because the system creates a derivative work. So *BLEEPING* what if it creates a derivative work. Seriously copyright law was flawed as soon as they started making derivative works require permission.

Well, you know what, RIAA? I have a crapload of videogame music remixes, illegal derivative works in my winamp playlist RIGHT NOW, and... wait... that wouldnt work unless I was trying to piss off nintendo... which i'm not trying to do.

Seriously, the RIAA/MPAA claims to be family friendly by hurting P2P claming it's full of nothing but underage women being raped in the butt, yet as soon as a family-friendly technology touches their content, they get all COPYRIGHT OBESSESSED!

"Unauthorized editing." We're back to that same question, aren't we? If I buy it, is it mine to do with as I wish, or am I only renting it? Am I only allowed to view it the way the MPAA wants me to view it, or the way I want to?

Whoa, wait-a-minute here.

Unauthorized editing. Just what are they saying with this? Seems I got some foggy idea here that doesn't fit with this statement.

When you get public tv, all the nasty, dirty, sex is cleaned up. I mean if they can't take that scene out at least the breast or whatever is blurred. Don't tell me that isn't editing.

It doesn't end here though. Typically because of commercials, most movies are cut in length, compressed, sped up in parts, parts taken out to make it fit the time span. As was mentioned, formats are changed to fit the tv, so you have a full screen picture.

Now if that ain't editing, I don't know what is. It is definately changing the original work to show it.

No what we have here is selective permission. If it don't fit what they got in mind as far as control goes then it is "unautorized editing". Maybe I do see how it is....

I had the same thoughts, wet1.

Radio bleeps music, TV shortens movies, clips portions out of movies, and blurs things out of movies.. same with music videos, music cds etc. What about legally selling mp3's (iTunes style). An mp3 may as well be edited, it's certainly been changed from the original... I agree with you.

TheSherminator wrote: Why shouldn't parents have the option to block that stuff from their kids? If I were a parent, I'd use it.

Parent's do. It's called knowing what your kids are watching, and actually being a parnet, and tell them no, they can't watch it. It's also called using your V-Chip, to block TV shows that you deem that your children shouldn't watch.

Last time I checked every TV I've ever seen or watched still had an OFF switch.

Everyone is missing what they are afraid of. The DVD player gets it's filters by downloading them on your computer and burning them to a cd-rw. There is nothing to stop people from making their own filters to block the FBI warning and the forced trailers/ads that can not be skipped or even fast forwarded through. Also note that many DVDs are actually all region (region 0), but rely on a script to detect the correct region. That system is known as RCE, and would be trivial to bypass using filters since the only thing preventing the DVD from playing in the wrong region is software in the DVD itself (part of the menuing system). It might even be possible to bypass normal region coding with the right filters (a filter to replace the blocks that contain which region with ones that say it is for all regions). Depending on how much data can be stored in the filters, fansubs could be distributed as filters instead of requiring you to decrypt, patch, and burn the DVD. That is what the movie industry actually fears about this system, the third party filters that will be produced, not the official ones.

They also still have an ON switch. How do people forget that so easily?

If I want to buy an edited version for my kids, why shouldn't I be able to have one? There's nothing wrong with this.

"It's called knowing what your kids are watching"

Yeah.. and they'll be watching edited versions of movies.

What's so bad about saying clipped and cut versions of movies are legal for parents to purchase for their kids? I don't get it. That wouldn't be all I buy.. but if I had kids I would assume that for some of the more violent movies I would probably rather get them cut version. How does a TV having an OFF switch fix the problem of your kid wanting to see an in appropriate movie? Maybe you thought the problem was that he wanted to stop watching but just couldn't figure it out..?

"There is nothing to stop people from making their own filters to block the FBI warning and the forced trailers/ads that can not be skipped or even fast forwarded through."

Even better. That's awesome (even though my TV has an OFF switch)

Per 'screwriaa's' point of "Everyone is missing what they are afraid of": That's all a smokescreen. In a sense, it appears that what the Hollywood left is trying to "protect" is its libertine, licentious (and, to some critics, anti-American) agenda of the three D's -- decadence, degeneracy and deviancy -- from any pressure to clean up its act. (And hiding behind the mantel of "copyright protection" to do so.) Notice their holier-than-thou outrage at those who are outraged at them. And, of course, they don't REALLY want parents to take an active role in raising their children, because that would mean all their marketing in that realm would go out the window.

Also . . . is it just me, or does anyone notice something of a connection between CBS's airing of the Abu Ghraib prison photos (and the descriptions of what allegedly went on there), and CBS chief Les Moonves' recent announcement that a) his network won't pay any stinking fines with respect to the Super Bowl flapdoodle and b) his network will further intensify its efforts to "push the envelope" in all arenas of its schedule? I thought that, on one level, the photo airings were part and parcel of that mindset ("I dare the FCC to fine us for THIS!").

screwriaa,

You can already do that. If you want to make an edited movie all you gotta do is get a few programs off the net. Those programs are free With them you can remove any trailers, notices, credits, or even where the movie starts and ends.

That one program doesn't allow you to edit out scenes but there are others that do. You can today have it your way, inspite of what they wish you to have.

I know, but to do that you need a DVD burner and software like DVD Decrypter, with this all you have to do is download the right filters, burn them on a cd-rw, and go. DVD burning is a royal pain, you have to know if your standalone DVD player works with all recordable media, +r/-r only, +rw/-rw but not record once media (like my apex), and such. Even the brand of DVD media matters when recording. Burning some filters onto a CD-RW has none of the compatability issues of DVD recording, and is much easier than messing around with DVD Decrypter and other DVD authoring tools. Even simply making the main movie fit on a recordable DVD took me a while to figure out (using IfoEdit to make video_ts and get vts sectors). While it was worth it just so I could use copies on my laptop (and keep the originals on the shelf at home), it is not as easy as it sounds. Even I have not attempted to remove scenes or remove PUOs while leaving the DVD structure otherwise intact.

Let me know when they make a DVD player that lets you watch ONLY the dirty parts! Now that I'd like to have!