As reported on arstechnica, a Colorado court has ruled that third parties may not bowdlerize movies, even if they call it “sanitizing”, without the permission of the copyright holders. When I first heard radio ads for Cleanflicks I got dizzy from the simultaneous eye roll and jaw drop. I’m glad they lost this suit.
This a victory for intellectual property rights, and should have been a slam dunk on those merits alone.
I have no patience for people who alter someone else’s work. I think pan-and-scan transfers are an abomination, but re-editing someone’s film is just vandalism.
But I also have a question for the customers of these services: What are you thinking?
Are you so knee-jerk, dim-wittedly prudish as to think that just removing the nudity or swearing from “objectionable” movies automatically makes them OK? So much so that you’ll relegate your responsibility to choose your entertainment carefully to some drone in Utah? And do you really think that all movies with no nudity or swearing are fit for the whole family?
What would Cleanflicks do with a movie chock-a-block full of profanity and vulgarity, but whose plot could have been written by Focus on the Family? And what about one with no nudity or naughty words, but truly ugly ideas?
This is worse, and (ubelievably) even more stupid than letting the MPAA decide what you should see. You have a brain. Use it. And, if you can’t, how about just not watching the movie at all if you fear it’s objectionable? Surely you have better things to do.
Don’t support vandals just because you’re too lazy to make intelligent entertainment choices.