CleanFlicks fires first shot in suit against top directors
August 30, 2002 - The Hollywood Reporter
Anticipating legal action from the Directors Guild of America, the operator of a Colorado-based video rental company and an inventor — both of whom specialize in third-party edits to DVDs and videocassettes — made a pre-emptive legal strike against 16 of the most well-known directors in Hollywood, including Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Robert Altman. (Peter Kiefer and Chris Marlowe)
DGA sues 3rd-party editors
September 23, 2002 - The Hollywood Reporter
The Directors Guild of America has filed a countersuit in a Colorado federal court against a handful of third-party editing companies, two of which filed a previous suit against 16 of the DGA's most prominent members (HR 9/3). (Peter Kiefer and Chris Marlowe)
As one of the biggest pieces of news in Hollywood right now, it is hard to turn away from judgement in such a case. While there are understandable arguments on both sides, the real question is who has the right to determine how a movie will be changed to alter its rating? As a long time movie enthusiast and amateur critic, I feel it should be up to the moviemaker.
Moviemaking is a work of art and an artist’s work should be just that – the artist’s work. When a third party chooses to change that work, he/she is violating that artist’s integrity. Should the artist choose to alter his/her own work to allow viewing by a wider audience, then I see no problem. Director’s already make different versions for television and airplanes, so it should be at their discretion whether they make different versions by rating available on video.
A third party should not be allowed to decide what scenes of Saving Private Ryan should be edited out or whether or not the love scene in Titanic is inappropriate. This is not up to the viewer. The scenes were not the viewer’s creation. The only decisions the viewer should be making is whether or not to watch a film. If that film happens to be offered on video edited to meet different ratings by the moviemaker, then the viewer also has the choice of which version to watch, but the content in that version should be determined by the maker of the movie.
Please share your thoughts on this subject in our Memorable Movie Quotes and Scenes poll!
Go To Page: 1
