quote:
[from linked article] MyCleanFlicks is filling a need by mailing censored videos to consumers in locations without CleanFlicks stores, spokesman Chad Fullmer said.
Surely they must be breaking copyright law by doing this. I can understand that it's a grey area if Joe Public brings his tape of Titanic to a company, who then removes some video or audio from it, then returns the very same tape and charges a fee for the service only. But if they're actually selling copies of films which have been re-edited without the copyright owner's permission, I fail to see how they cannot be committing an offence.
That having been said, a lot of bowdlerising gets done with the studios' blessing. The kiddie-friendly cut of Robocop, which is often shown on UK telly, always puts a smile on my face: especially the grocery store hold-up scene in which the robber's aggressive screams of 'f**k you!' (whilst repeatedly and unsuccessfully attempting to shoot Robocop with a sawn-off) are replaced by pathetic cries of 'why me?'. And then there are the badly dubbed Eddie Murphy films with such gems as 'f'hell' and 'mothercrusher'. Never mind the blood flowing all over the screen, death, destruction and generally antisocial behaviour in these films: just as long as there is no sex and no use of colloquial language which refers to sex, everyone will be alright. These religious extremists would probably have no problem showing Reservoir Dogs in a kindergarten just as long as the bad language was dubbed over...
These people really are shooting themselves in the foot, because doing that sort of thing just draws attention to the changes you've made.