House to back DVD-editing ability

WASHINGTON -- When Jeff Weidle, a Houston father of two, wanted to watch the thriller "I, Robot" with his family recently, he had no qualms about buying a DVD of the PG-13-rated film, even though he normally shuns violence and nudity in television and movies.

Weidle, who is a conservative Christian, simply slipped the disc into a special DVD player from Utah-based ClearPlay Inc.

The device allows him to filter out a range of potentially objectionable content. Instead of watching the version that most consumers saw in the theater, Weidle's version was sanitized.

Now, Congress is poised to give a boost to the ClearPlay system that Weidle uses. This week, the House is expected to pass -- and send to President Bush -- legislation that would immunize the content-skipping technology from lawsuits brought by the movie industry.

The legislation, which faces muted opposition, would shield a burgeoning industry that caters to people who want to watch Hollywood blockbusters without gore, profanity or sex. ClearPlay is just one such company; some other firms, such as the Utah-based CleanFlicks, edit out the content from movie DVDs and rent the sterilized versions to subscribers.

The companies argue that if Hollywood won't clean up its act, they have a right to do it for them.

But the movie industry disagrees -- and has mounted a legal challenge designed to stop the companies, who they argue are violating their intellectual property rights and trampling the creative control of directors.

Eight major studios and the Directors Guild of America have filed lawsuits against ClearPlay, CleanFlicks and other, similar companies, on behalf of Robert Redford, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and other Hollywood icons.

Congress is intervening with the legislation, which would give a green light to ClearPlay -- the company that doesn't permanently alter authorized DVDs. CleanFlicks and other companies that create unauthorized, edited versions of DVDs -- and then rent those copies to consumers -- could still be challenged in court under the bill.

The Senate passed the legislation unanimously Feb. 1, and the House is set to take up the measure either March 15 or 16.

Supporters, such as Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, and Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who sponsored the legislation in the House, say the technology rightly gives consumers more control over what they see and hear.

The technology "simply gives parents the right to define what they see when they rent a movie," Smith said.

That's the kind of control Weidle said he wanted.

Until he got the system a little over a year ago, Weidle had stopped seeing all but G-rated movies with his wife, 14-year-old daughter, and 5-year-old son. But these days Weidle is watching movies he had long avoided because of what he said was gratuitous profanity and violence.

"I don't miss the language," Weidle said. "I don't need to see someone's head blown off to know that they died."

Backers also argue the content-skipping filters or sanitized DVDs are analogous to movie watchers shutting their eyes or pressing the mute button to avoid glimpsing a sex scene or hearing profanity.

"It's no different than if I were to choose to mute something," said Bill Aho, the CEO of the 14-employee ClearPlay. "The director may not like that, but the fact is, it's my home."

Movie studios often make different versions of films for different venues, such as on airlines or on television. The difference, according to the entertainment industry, is that those are made in conjunction with film creators.

"Here, (ClearPlay) leaves the people who own the movie out of it and is going to make a profit on their work by distorting it," said Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif.

"There is a right for consumers to edit their own versions of movies, but this isn't the consumer editing," Berman said. "This is some young employee of some profit-making company, who is going to create filters unlimited in nature. And he keeps the director's name" on the film.

Berman contends that consumers ultimately have plenty of alternative options when it comes to screening content. Chief among them: Don't watch the movie.

"If you want your kids to see a World War II movie that doesn't have those violent scenes, you don't show your kids 'Saving Private Ryan,"' Berman said. "You don't totally change 'Saving Private Ryan' and then claim it's a Steven Spielberg movie. It's not the same movie. It isn't the movie he wanted to make."

Critics point to such films as "The Graduate," one of the titles for which ClearPlay offers a filter. The movie just wouldn't be the same without its infamous hotel seduction scene, opponents say.

The movie industry -- and its advocates in Congress -- vigorously fought earlier versions of the legislation.

But Hollywood decided to back off this year, when new, industry- favored provisions that would crack down on movie piracy were added to the bill. The legislation now also would authorize a National Film Preservation Board and task the Library of Congress with working to conserve movies.

"Notwithstanding all the problems, we made a calculated decision" to call a cease-fire because of the anti-piracy and film preservation provisions, Berman said.

To use ClearPlay, consumers first must have a special DVD player made by RCA. RCA halted production of the player after the lawsuits were filed, but it is still available for about $80 from ClearPlay and some Wal-Mart stores.

Customers then download filters on the Internet or receive them by mail on an unlimited basis under a subscription or by purchasing them a la carte. Filters are available for more than 1,000 titles: everything from "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" to the "Matrix" trilogy.

Consumers can choose to filter out a combination of content, such as cursing, "vain references to deity" or "graphic vulgarity." If ClearPlay users don't mind profanity, they can leave that in a film while opting out of violent scenes.

Not all films are ideal for such filtering, particularly those where potentially objectionable material is central to the plotline. Aho said ClearPlay sometimes will opt against cleaning up a film that is inherently violent -- such as a war movie -- for fear of butchering the original.

"We want to make sure people are pleased with what they're going to see," Aho said. After all, he added, "the movie needs to make sense. We don't edit or filter a lot of the movies that are problematic for us."

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