By Faroe Decker
The Director”s Guild of America and The Motion Picture Association of America are suing two different groups of companies for copyright infringement.
The two groups consist of companies like CleanFlicks, who edit out content of movies, and Clearplay, who use filters to skip objectionable content.
The lawsuit comes at a time when the technology is growing in popularity.
“Sales have been teriffic and consumer response has been great all across the country,” Bill Aho, CEO of Clearplay said.
The parties involved in the case have filed a summary judgment motion, meaning that no witnesses will be called, but just a judge interprets what the law is.
The suit was first filed in August of 2002, but the parties involved are hoping for a decision within the next few months.
A statement issued by the Director”s Guild of America said it supports the right of parents to choose what films they and their children watch and how they watch them in their home, but it opposes third parties taking copyright-protected work and altering it without the input of the copyright holders and film-makers.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit group of lawyers, volunteers and visionaries that work to protect digital rights has filed a brief to help the judge make a decision.
Jason Shultz, an attorney for the EFF specializing in intellectual property and copyright law said that the EFF”s brief stands for people”s rights to watch movies any way they want in the privacy of their own home.
“We don”t care who wins, we just want the court to make the right legal decision,” Shultz said.
The House of Representatives sub-committee on courts, the Internet, and intellectual property held a hearing on the legal implications of movie filtering technology last Thursday.
In the hearing, Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-Tex.), Chairman of the sub-committee, compared movie watching to reading a book.
“Just as the author of a book should not be able to force me to read that book in any particular manner or order, a studio or director should also not be able to use the law to force me or my children to watch a movie in a particular way,” Smith said.
Smith said he hopes that the participants in the lawsuit resolve their issues, but if they don”t he is prepared to introduce legislation or use other legislative vehicles to protect the right of parents to shield their children from violence, sex, and profanity.
Marjorie Heins, author of “Not In Front of The Children,” which concludes that censoring the young may have ill effects on children”s imaginations, testified in the hearing.
“Education in media literacy skills is far more likely than filters or censorship laws to produce healthy, nonviolent, and sexually responsible adults,” Heins said.
Chris Cannon, R-Utah, has drafted legislation to allow companies to legally market technology that filters content of movies, but is holding back introducing the bill until the lawsuit between Clearplay and the Motion Picture Association is resolved.
Laurie Urguiaga, copyright compliance officer for BYU”s law school said that according to the First Sale Doctrine as long as it”s a legitimately acquired copy that is being modified, the creator has no control over it once it has been sold.
“If you want to use your DVD as a Frisbee they cannot complain,” Urguiaga said.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a law passed in 1998, which prohibits anyone from overwriting copyright protection systems used by digital media.
Technically, the DMCA even prohibits consumers from altering the playback of a DVD in any way, meaning companies like Clearplay could be subject to the act.
Clearplay works through a filter in a RCA DVD player and regular DVDs purchased or rented from stores allowing the viewer to skip or mute content through 14 different filter settings.
Aho, a BYU grad, said that Clearplay was started by BYU grads Matt and Lee Jarman, who realized there was a demand for movies with less adult oriented content and that technology could do this in consumer friendly ways.
Clearplay DVD players are available at Walmart and RC Willey for $70.
“It”s an unbelievable product, you will not believe how well it works,” Aho said.
