Registered: Mar 2005
Location: SEATTLE
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Axing sex, swearing from films violates copyright: court
Last Updated Sun, 09 Jul 2006 10:47:31 EDT
CBC Arts

Deleting swearing, sex and violence from films on DVD or VHS violates copyright laws, a U.S. judge has ruled in a decision that could end controversial sanitizing done for some video-rental chains, cable services and the internet.

U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch says sanitizing movies to delete content that may offend some people is an 'illegitimate business.' (Ed Andrieski/Associated Press) U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch says sanitizing movies to delete content that may offend some people is an 'illegitimate business.' (Ed Andrieski/Associated Press)

The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit brought by 16 U.S. directors — including Steven Spielberg, Robert Redford and Martin Scorsese — against three Utah-based companies that "scrub" films.

Judge Richard P. Matsch 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...

(read the whole article here)

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Now this issue does seem legitimately a little tricky to me, because you're ultimately selling movies that you don't hold the copyrights too. But, you're exchanging them with customers who already have a copy of the movie in question, meaning they've already paid for it, and according to fair use law, should be able to have as many copies of the material as they want to make, for their own use. In this case they are literally paying a service to remove content from their library. This is stealing?

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35658

They aren't operating on owned copies, are they? They seem to be buying them and then editing and then reselling them.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: is futile
Posts: 5027

That is the property paradigm for you
makes no sense to me either

cheers
-m

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Zion
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There are quite a few different stores operating in Zion that are selling these scrubbed movies. Most of them are selling copies that are already cleaned. There are a few that are cleaning your copy for a fee. I can't see this ruling affecting the latter. It's like paying someone to custom paint your car and getting rid of the factory colors.

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Registered: Aug 2001
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The ruling doesn't affect software used to do this, according to what I heard (I guess that doesn't alter the video, just what you see; of course, the movie studios are also after them).

Intellectual property laws aren't particularly 'natural', I don't think. Without a bunch of law and pretty continual litigation, it wouldn't work at all (clearly, that's true of many elements of our governmental system, but it seems to me that intellectual property laws are amongst what would be the first to fail without enforcement from the federal level on down).

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Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:

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Originally posted by Smug Git
Intellectual property laws aren't particularly 'natural', I don't think.

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How are contracts enforced without litigation through law? Litigation is the stick that you beat transgressors with (particularly in, say, patent cases).

Nothing succeeds without enforcement, but you can have murder statutes in your state or county or parish without federal statutes. Intellectual property laws are not going to work if they're not enforced at least at the federal level (which they are, in the US).

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Registered: Aug 2001
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Also, I think that owning things is a bit more natural than owning ideas. Things have a physical reality, but ideas are more ephemeral. Things can be copied but you still have the original one; when ideas are copied and you can't control that process, ownership of the idea isn't worth anything. But maybe that is a natural state.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Smug Git
How are contracts enforced without litigation through law?

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Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:

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Originally posted by Smug Git
Also, I think that owning things is a bit more natural than owning ideas. Things have a physical reality, but ideas are more ephemeral. Things can be copied but you still have the original one; when ideas are copied and you can't control that process, ownership of the idea isn't worth anything. But maybe that is a natural state.

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quote:

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Originally posted by BROKEN_LADDER
because there doesn't have to be any law saying it's illegal to copy something. if it's part of a contract, it's already a crime to break the agreement. law is a moot point. litigation doesn't have to be over breaking laws--it can also be over breaking contracts.

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Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:

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Originally posted by Smug Git
Breaking a contract isn't a criminal matter, is it, but rather a civil matter (that is settled through sueing)?

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Registered: Aug 2001
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There is a lot of difference in practice. For example, the standard of proof for civil and criminal matters is different in the UK and I think that it is in the US too. The distinction is an oooold one, I believe.

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Registered: Aug 2001
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Even if it were a criminal matter, how would it be enforced without the apparatus of law; police, prosecutors, courts?

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