Edited Film Distributors Lose Their Case But Make Their Point
by Ed Thomas and Jenni Parker
September 13, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The attorney for a film distribution company, which edited and sold Hollywood movies with profane language and sexual content deleted, has confirmed that it won't appeal a Colorado federal judge's ruling that the pro-family venture is illegal.David Schachter, attorney for the Utah-based company CleanFlicks, says it was not the act of editing out sex, nudity, profanity, and gory violence that the court, after a three-year legal battle, ruled unlawful. "The problem wasn't so much that they were making edits," he notes; "the problem was that they were then making copies of the edited films -- and that is where they went afoul of federal trademark law."
The gist of the July court decision that helped put CleanFlicks and several of its distribution affiliates out of business was that buying Hollywood's copyrighted movies and editing out profanity, nudity, and other offensive content is legal. Distributing those edited copies, however, is not.
Ultimately, it was not filmmakers' claims that their creative rights were being violated by editing that Judge Richard Matsch upheld under U.S. copyright law, Schachter points out. Where the edited film distribution companies "got crosswise" with Hollywood, he explains, "was when they started making multiple copies of these edited movies and then offering them for rental or sale to the public."
In other words, the attorney continues, the point on which Judge Matsch agreed with the filmmaking industry plaintiffs in his ruling was that renting and selling these edited movies "is infringement of their copyright, because you're violating their reproduction rights."
CleanFlicks, Family Flix USA, and Play It Clean Video were all ordered to stop distribution and turn over all of their edited movie material within five days of the July order. But despite the verdict, Schachter says CleanFlicks founder Ray Lines feels his distribution business made an important point to the movie studios -- that being that American families today want cleaner content in their movie entertainment.
Lines wanted to get some recognition of the problem, to make the movie studios aware of the niche the edited film distributors were trying to fill, CleanFlicks' legal representative explains. "And I certainly think he did that," the lawyer adds. "I mean, he got their attention; whether in the long run we will look back and say that they learned something from it and started offering more family-oriented content -- that remains to be seen."
Meanwhile, Schachter notes, families looking to enjoy popular movies without being exposed to mature, obscene, or excessively graphic content still have some options. He says a law passed by Congress last year, the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, allows the sale of equipment that skips objectionable parts of movies for use at home or private viewings.
Also, some CleanFlicks store owners and customers are exploring yet another means of making family-edited films available to the public. According to a recent report in Utah's Deseret News, a group of video store customers and store owners gathered at an August 5 petition-signing party aimed at urging Hollywood directors to release the already edited versions of their films shown by many commercial airlines.
Currently, many film producers and directors edit their own films and distribute them for use on airline flights, where R-rated movies are not permitted. The owners and customers' pro-family petition pushes for the Hollywood directors involved with the case against CleanFlicks and similar distribution companies to agree to release edited versions of their movies.
