CleanFlicks Sues For Their Right to Edit Movies
I continue to be amazed at how film is somehow viewed differently from other works of art ... by some groups and individuals anyway. No one ever thinks to cover up or paste over something that might be offensive in a painting, they simply can choose not to look at it. No one would think to use a black marker and mask out offensive words from a book. So why is film treated so differently?
It's bad enough that the MPAA currently ends up regulating the content of certain motion pictures when a fight over an NC-17 rating occurs. But now there's an actual company, a video sale and rental store called CleanFlicks out of Colorado, which has decided they will edit movies themselves to remove objectionable content and sell these more "family friendly" titles to people who want to watch, say Eyes Wide Shut, but just can't stand to see the nudity and hear all those bad words. This practice should be criminal, and CleanFlick's actions of late are getting even stranger ... and moronic.
First of all, don't we already have a ratings system that tells people in detail what kinds of material a film may contain? Let's face it folks ... movies are made for different groups of people. Eyes Wide Shut is a film for adults only, and editing out offensive material so families can watch still doesn't make it a film that should necessarily be viewed by young people. CleanFlicks has argued before that there are some films, like a Saving Private Ryan, which should be seen by all kinds of people, but yet some people would like to see it without so much violence and language. What CleanFlicks can't comprehend is that their editing not only would mute the whole intended effect of experiencing that film, but they are also making decisions that only the director of the film should make.
But that's not even the worst of what CleanFlicks is doing lately. A couple of weeks ago, CleanFlicks got word that the Directors Guild of America was putting together a lawsuit against these kinds of companies who specialize in editing out objectionable material from movies. So what did they decide to do? CleanFlicks filed their own lawsuit against 16 of Hollywood's best known and most respected directors. Among the directors targeted in the suit ... Steven Spielberg, Robert Redford, Sydney Pollack, Robert Altman, Steven Soderbergh, John Landis, and Martin Scorsese. Pete Webb, spokesman for the company, said that they had wanted to get their lawsuit filed before the DGA could file theirs. They are seeking a declaratory judgment to establish that their editing of videos is protected under federal copyright law.
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