nytimes.com — A federal judge in Colorado has order movie sanitation companies to stop creating and selling new "clean" versions of films. Cleanflicks and other companies that take the curses and "objectionable" content out of Hollywood films and sell the new copies to consumers and movie rental stores can no longer continue their practices.
Jul 10, 2006 View in Crawl 4
mohonriJul 11, 2006
You're missing the point. Cleanflicks et al weren't censoring the movies. People who want the "untouched" version are still just as free to go get it. These companies were merely providing these same movies--sans objectionable material--to people who were willing to pay for it. They weren't even depriving the movie studios/producers of any revenue--they paid for every copy they sold. In fact, they very probably *increased* the sales of the movies, by making them accessible (and acceptable) to a larger audience.Just because there is a (very significant) portion of the population who don't feel that gratuitous sex scenes are necessary in movies doesn't mean that they're stopping you from watching it.
twinklyjesusJul 11, 2006
If you ask yourself those questions, you obviously have trouble differentiating between what is real and what is story. You should probably stop going to movies and check into a hospital.
burgerman851Jul 11, 2006
Perhaps the film makers should step up to the plate and offer sanitized versions themselves. One or two days' of editing on their part would enable them to market "clean" versions of their films to those who would not otherwise watch it. The plot in most of the films in which such customers would be interested is almost independent of the objectionable material.
drgrrlfriendJul 11, 2006
I know it sounds lame, but for example, my mom won't watch anything with any kind of sex, nudity, etc in it because she believes with heartfelt honestly that that stuff is wrong to use as entertainment. I work in the film industry, so of course I don't agree, but I cut together a version of Titanic with the nude scene and sex scene removed, and it's touching to me when I see how touched *she* is by the movie when we watch it together.People aren't just avoiding that stuff to be a pain or an annoying prude... some are simple, goodhearted folks who just have different convictions than we do, and if removing a few minutes of nudity makes something accessible to them, then I don't have a problem with it.
final_soundJul 11, 2006
@chewie67Let me go ahead and turn your argument around for you. If you don't like movies WITHOUT sex, violance, nudity or "foul language", then don't watch movies that do not contain them. Just watch the regular version, I don't go bother you about what you watch in the privacy of your own home; so don't bother me about what I don' t want to watch. I would like my 11 year old boy to learn about the holocaust, so when I show him Schindler's List we'll watch it all, but fastforward through the sex scene, because I don't think it's good for him to see that especially at his age. Is my censorship illegal and wrong? Did I ruin the presentation of the film? Will my child understand less about the holocaust because the sex scene was unlawfully torn out of the film?
rockintom99Jul 12, 2006
dhollister: Actually, not all do. A while ago, i saw Saving Private Ryan on the airwaves (NBC, i think it was), and they only cut parts for time. There was full violence and swearing. I think, if they edited a war to show that it was happy-funtimes, that would be pushing the line.
electrobotJul 14, 2006
I agree with you ZiggyP.Here's what I propose these companies do:1) Team up with a Chinese company to create a DVD player that has a certain amount of RAM (less than a 32MB would probably suffice.2) Buy the official movie.3) Create a index file from that movie which knows when each inappropriate scene or audio is shown/spoken.4) Sell the original DVD with another disc (CD or DVD with the index file on it and the replacement text)5) Label the index disc in such a way that the consumer knows to put this disc in before the original DVD.6) Put in the original DVD and play the movie.7) At every point where there is a inappropriate scene the DVD player (using the index file as a guide) skips the scene.8) At every inappropriate use of language (swearing or whatever) the DVD Player either bleeps it out or plays an .au file (tiny files) which sounds similar but isn't a swear word.9) To disable the index file the user would have to enter the DVD Player's setup password (which the parent can set when they buy the player).10) The DVD Player would also have a menu where you can select what you don't want to see/hear (e.g. sexual, racial, political, whatever)
lucasrayAug 13, 2006
That's funny because I have a friend who can (using his remote) cut out all the crap scenes in Top Gun so all you see are the cool Fighter Jet things. The movie lasts 15 minutes in its "improved" form.Then again, this instance should probably be seen not as copyright infringement but as a favor to all mankind."What I'm trying to say is, that movie sucked, just a little more than I miss you" - Team America World Police
lucasrayAug 13, 2006
Not to mention that the MPAA and the RIAA "f**k around with the damn copyright system"all the time.I think that either you get the rights to edit, have the studios make the "airline" version available, or do it in the privacy of your home. As long as you have the copy, do what you want. Oh, and if you do it on iMovie, it doesn't require NEARLY as much technical skill as through other medium.What about taking scenes from movies and Mad-Libbing them? That would be really fun. I guess that's probably the mashing/remixing phenomenon mentionned earlier. Like your own personal MST3K. I like it...