And now, E-rated videos coming to a store near you!
Ray Lines, founder of Utah-based CleanFlicks, is quoted by the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) as saying "All we're talking about here is choice." Is it just about that? Choice, golf clubs, freedom of editing? The legal issue may boil down to whether editing these films, or making the software that changes these films, violates the "derivative work right" of copyright holders to control the making of related works.
The big Albertson's Inc. grocery-store chain this summer began renting so-called e-rated videos -- edited without filmmaker permission -- in most of its 46 Utah stores. A Utah-based software start-up, Trilogy Studios, just introduced a product that lets home-video users excise a variety of unwanted scenes on their computer, using the company's preprogrammed edits.
..."I can go into Wal-Mart, buy a set of golf clubs and paint 'em a different color, and nobody cries about that," says Mr. Lines. "This is America."
Movies aren't golf clubs, filmmakers say. The Directors Guild of America, based in Los Angeles, is exploring legal action to halt the editing operations. Materials announcing a suit, including outraged quotes from big-name directors like Martin Scorsese and Mr. Spielberg, were mistakenly posted on the guild's Web site last month and quickly taken down. DGA Executive Director Jay Roth says all the editing operations likely violate copyright laws.
I mentioned this here when I saw the incorrect Wired story about "Our Product is like Software Pasties"