Judge: Sterile movies illegal
Ruling says firms' editing of content violates copyrights
Sue Lindsay, Rocky Mountain News
Published July 8, 2006 at midnight
Three companies that produce family-friendly versions of films edited to remove objectionable content are violating studio copyrights to the movies and must stop, a federal judge has ruled.
In an order signed Thursday, U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch ordered CleanFlicks, of Colorado; Family Flix, of Arizona; and Play it Clean Video, of Utah, to stop producing the films edited to remove profanity, sex and violence.
Hollywood movie studios contended that the companies were infringing on their copyright to the films.
Matsch agreed.
"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."
The judge noted that the Family Movie Act of 2005 permits individuals to edit films to remove objectionable content in their own homes, but lawmakers didn't approve the sale of edited copies of films.
The judge gave the companies five days to return edited copies of the films to attorneys for the studios for destruction.
"It didn't really surprise us much," David Schacter, attorney for CleanFlicks, said of the ruling.
He said CleanFlicks has gone out of business during the course of the lawsuit, filed in 2002, because there wasn't as large a demand for the edited films as the company anticipated.
"Most of them are out of business, and if they aren't now, they will be," he said. "The injunction is clear."
Schacter said no appeal would be filed on his client's behalf.
"Where the case goes now, I can't speculate. There's almost nothing we can do at this point."
However, Schacter said the case succeeded in bringing the content of Hollywood movies to public debate.
"Our objective all along was to bring the issue to the public's attention," he said. "We did that. At least it got the public's attention."
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