Lawmaker Threatens Movie Filtering Bill

[AKA]

Lawmaker Threatens Movie Filtering Bill

By Erica Werner
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - A House subcommittee chairman said he was prepared to introduce legislation to resolve a dispute between Hollywood studios and makers of a technology that allows viewers to skip scenes deemed offensive in DVD movies.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, told a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing Thursday that he's prepared to introduce legislation "to protect the right of parents to shield their children from violence, sex and profanity" — unless litigation between makers and distributors of the technology and Hollywood studios and directors is settled within weeks.

"This technology does not violate the copyright and trademark laws of our nation," Smith said, contradicting claims made by Hollywood officials in their lawsuit.

"The issue isn't whether a movie loses some of its authenticity due to skipping of various audio and video, but whether parents have the right to shield their children from offensive content," he said.

Hollywood strongly objects to the movie filtering technology produced and marketed by companies including ClearPlay, a Salt Lake City business whose chairman testified at the hearing. ClearPlay's technology allows viewers to skip or mute scenes in DVD movies flagged by company employees as containing violence, sex and nudity, offensive language or other potentially objectionable content.

"It is simply wrong for these companies to profit by removing content from films and thereby changing their meaning without the permission of directors or the studios that are the copyright holders," Taylor Hackford, a Directors Guild of America board member, told the committee in written testimony.

Hackford was invited to attend the hearing but pulled out at the last minute. Directors Guild officials said they decided not to attend after determining that the hearing would focus too much on the status of settlement talks.

"We were in serious negotiations, which is what they say they wanted, and we don't think that a hearing was needed or in any way valuable to the negotiation process," said DGA spokesman Dan McGinn.

No one from Hollywood appeared at the hearing, which featured testimony from ClearPlay Chairman Bill Aho, an academic and a psychologist in support of ClearPlay and one academic opposed to the technology.

Smith said he invited Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America, to attend and invite studio heads but no one accepted. Valenti's spokesman disputed that, providing a May 19 letter in which Valenti wrote to Smith that he would have attended if he'd been invited.

Several Democrats at the hearing took Hollywood's side, including the subcommittee's top Democrat, Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif. Berman said the hearing would interfere with recent progress in settlement talks in the lawsuit, pending in federal court in Denver since 2002.

"The public posturing and adversarial nature inherent in congressional hearings is bound to set back these negotiations and thus thwart the stated purpose of this hearing," Berman said.

Aho disputed the criticism of ClearPlay's technology, contending it's not a question of artistic freedom but of parental choice.

"This is a solution American families want," he said.

[TJL]

Here is how you protect your children from the violence and strong sexual content in DVDs.

Don't bring them into your house.

Little Tiffany and Timmy shouldn't be watching a parentally edited copy of "Texas Chainsaw Masscre" in the first place.

Put the kiddies to bed then watch your R rated movie.

Or don't bring them into your house.

Comprende cha-cha?