Monday, July 10, 2006

Ruling in CleanFlicks

In case you had not heard, there was a company in Utah that was selling edited versions of movies. Apparently aghast by the sex, drugs, violence, and foul language, this company catered to people who wanted their movies....well.... dull.

Eventually the Director's Guild caught wind of what was happening to their movies and filed suit. The judge hearing the case in the federal district court for Colorado handed down a ruling forcing the company to turn over al their edited movies to the movie studios.

The Rocky Mountain New story quoted the decision, where the judge held that,

"The accused parties make much of their public policy argument and have submitted many communications from viewers expressing their appreciation for the opportunity to view movies in the setting of the family home without concern for any harmful effects on their children," Matsch wrote.
"This argument is inconsequential to copyright law and is addressed in the wrong forum. This court is not free to determine the social value of copyrighted works.
"What is protected are the creator's rights to protect its creation in the form in which it was created."
Now, where was this ruling when Ted Turner went and colorized all those westerns?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I know quite a few Mormons who'll be pissed--I mean "ticked" (as they'd say)-- about this ruling. Now they'll be stuck watching G and PG movies again.

In fact, we're on our way westward to see them, so I'll be sure to stop back when we return in a week and let you know what they think about it. I'm sure you'll be waiting with baited (bated?) breath!