Ready, Fire, Aim! - Mihail's Public Blog: "Our product is like software pasties"

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Monday, September 2, 2002

"Our product is like software pasties"

It was only a matter of time that this was going to happen. I'd heard that Walmart (although not Blockbuster even though I've heard several times rumors to the contrary) has been compelling producers of music and films to create "family friendly" versions of their work if they want them stocked on their stores' shelves. Now, according to Wired News, several companies are seeking the constitutional right to alter/censor films:

A Colorado company Thursday sued 16 Hollywood directors, including Steven Spielberg and Sydney Pollack, seeking the right to edit "objectionable" material such as sex and violence from movies.

Clean Flicks of Colorado and Robert Huntsman, who has a patent pending for a new way to edit movies, filed the lawsuit in federal court, seeking a judgment that would declare it constitutional to provide edited movies to the public for private home viewing.

Their argument is this!

"Everyone knows what is going on when moaning and groaning is happening, but some people don't want to see it. That's the Movie Shield customer," said Richard Schmer, Family Shield Technologies spokesperson. "It's like when burlesque was big, and everyone wore pasties; our product is like software pasties. I wonder how much Michelangelo bitched when they put fig leaves on his statue -- we all know what's under the fig leaf."

"It has to do with family values," said CleanFlicks President John Dixon. "We don't think consumers should have to go through an experience where you see an adultery scene at the end of the movie, and everything turns out OK. If we're going to glorify drugs and prostitution in our media, there are consequences."

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