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Date: 2004-05-07
US: ClearPlay/DVD-Player mit Contentfilter-.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- A new DVD player - slim, black, looking much like all the rest - is just starting to show up on Wal-Mart's shelves. But this one has Hollywood spinning in anger. This ClearPlay DVD menu lets you custom-screen movies for language, violence and other material you may find objectionable. [...] The $70 player from a company called ClearPlay has built-in "filters" designed to skip over violence and nudity and to mute salty language in 100 movies, including such blockbusters as Terminator 3 and The Matrix. The Utah-based company is adding more films to its filter library all the time. It now has more than 600 titles available for download. Editing of movies for different audiences is not unusual. Special cuts are routinely made for basic cable, broadcast TV and airlines. Some films tone down violence for release in other countries. But those editing decisions are made by the movie studios, if not by the directors themselves. Not by a handful of people in Utah. ClearPlay, founded by brothers Matt and Lee Jarman, has 11 employees. A "filtering technician" suggests changes; other developers and managers review and make the decisions. Users have the ability to fine-tune which of these filters to put into play, based on their personal sensitivities. [...] ClearPlay isn't the first company to try to clean up Hollywood movies. Others that came before: *CleanFlicks. With stores in Utah and a few other states, the retailer sells DVDs and videos that have been edited to remove what some consider offensive content. *MovieMask (www.moviemask.com). The $79.95 computer software developed by Trilogy Software mutes language and edits scenes when movies are played on PCs. *The Movie Shield box. Due from Family Shield Technologies this summer, it connects between a TV and DVD player and works similarly to ClearPlay. [...] But ClearPlay is the first company to produce a stand-alone DVD player at a reasonably low price, placing it on shelves in the nation's largest retailer. That means what had been a somewhat obscure legal skirmish between Hollywood and the heartland has moved into mass-market urgency. Wal-Mart sees a demand. Spokeswoman Karen Burke says the store's sales strategy is "based on what we think our customers want. That is basically the philosophy behind everything we carry." The stores also do not carry music CDs that have parental advisory labels; many record companies re-edit albums for sale there. Studios and filmmakers are stunned that someone not involved in the creative process could technologically chip away at their work - and make money at it. So lawsuits aiming to get the processes deemed illegal are underway. [...] CleanFlicks started the legal maneuvering. One owner of a CleanFlicks store, Robert Huntsman, pre-emptively sued directors two years ago to have the sales and rental of edited videos deemed legal. Since then, the Directors Guild of America countersued on behalf of big-name filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, arguing that products that modify DVD movies constitute a trademark violation. Eight movie studios - Disney, MGM, Warner Bros., Sony, DreamWorks, Universal, Fox and Paramount - have joined the legal battle. As the copyright holders, studios say that products such as ClearPlay create unauthorized versions of movies. ClearPlay counters that its technology does not make copies of movies, nor does it change the actual disc; it simply gives consumers the tools to watch movies as they wish. All sides are waiting for a federal judge in Denver to decide in one side's favor or schedule a pre-trial hearing. [...] Last week, ClearPlay gained an ally in Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., who is pushing for the sides to settle. To force the issue, he says he is looking into introducing legislation that would protect the player from court decisions. ClearPlay and the other cleanup technologies all are based in or have roots in Utah, specifically Brigham Young University in Provo. Jason Crop, who developed the Movie Shield technology with sister Tiffany and then sold it, says that's not just coincidence. "There is a great entrepreneurial spirit about BYU and technology," Crop says. "I think what happened is the melting pot lent itself to these ideas. I think it honestly comes down to Mormon culture. You don't watch R-rated movies, or you be very careful what you watch." [...] Matt Jarman says ClearPlay, however, doesn't have a religious agenda. He founded the company, he says, so that he, his wife and three daughters could watch movies together. "In the same way that airline or TV versions aren't edited for any particular religion, ClearPlay provides filtering options in areas where there are general public sensitivities, like graphic violence, strong language and sexually explicit content." Some still see that as a moral judgment being imposed on a creative vision. At the DGA, spokesman Morgan Rumph says many of the movies are edited bluntly and are changing the director's intent. "The DGA clearly believes the rights of artists, specifically directors, should be vigorously protected," he says. Not surprisingly, directors such as Irwin Winkler (Life as a House, The Net) agree. "When you buy a video or a DVD of a film, you expect to see the work re-created in its original form, not some bastardization for the sake of someone else's idea of morality," he told the guild's magazine. "If you go into the museum and see the painting of the Three Graces, you don't expect them to be wearing bras because nudity offends some of the people who attend an exhibit with their children." [...] Still, the market for filtered DVDs could be substantial, especially in a post-Janet Jackson wardrobe-malfunction world. "Whether it's the interest in parental control brought on by the Super Bowl incident or indecency on television, this seems to be of heightened interest," says Dave Arland of Thomson, which markets the player under the RCA brand. Yet, he adds, discussions about the player began months before the Super Bowl. Thomson is the first of several manufacturers that have talked with ClearPlay about bringing a machine to market. At the National Institute on Media and the Family, research director Doug Gentile says that ClearPlay seems like an option "that would help parents get around 'ratings creep,' " in which PG and PG-13 films have titillating content to appeal to teens and older audiences. "Anything that makes it easier for parents to monitor and control the amount and content of media their kids watch is a good thing." [...] ClearPlay CEO Bill Aho points to an example: In The Patriot, a Revolutionary War action film starring Mel Gibson, "you see a head taken off with a cannonball. For some people, to see that might ruin their day. But they might like to see the movie with their kids without some of that content." Hollywood could have addressed the issue itself, ClearPlay's Jarman points out. In 1997, when manufacturers and studios began pushing the fledgling DVD format, the ability to watch different versions of movies was part of the sales pitch. Jarman thought studios would put out DVD movies in lower-rated versions to hook those who were sensitive to violence and other content. In fact, the only trend has been in the other direction, with DVD releases of "unrated" movies that have spicier content than the theatrical PG-13 and R-rated versions. Some viewers are looking for more control. Michael Peterson, one of ClearPlay's first customers, bought a player earlier this month online. The 42-year-old Danville, Calif., investment banking professional, who served as an early tester of the product, says he and his wife, Shelley, "are offended by different things, (but) with ClearPlay we can both enjoy the movie." [...] They've watched ClearPlay versions of The Shawshank Redemption, Notting Hill, Catch Me If You Can, Erin Brockovich and The English Patient. "It doesn't change the movie. You literally only lose 30 seconds," he says. He says his wife always asks, "Can we ClearPlay it?" The ClearPlay DVD player also comes in handy for their five children, who range in age from 7 to 18. "Every weekend we get 10 kids (including friends) who want to watch Terminator 3, The Matrix or some other movie that we can edit down to get rid of all the junk," he says. DVDs may be just the start. ClearPlay is developing content filtering for broadcast TV, too. Jarman won't share many details about the process but says that "it works well. During playback, while watching something on television, it will mute language based on your settings." Hollywood should be encouraging ClearPlay rather than fighting it, some say. Jerilyn Kessel of Centris, a Santa Monica, Calif., entertainment research firm, says ClearPlay could help Hollywood's bottom line. "It's going to increase the business of video rental and purchases. I can't see how it can hurt it in any way." [...] ClearPlay's Aho, a non-Utah native who spent nine years in marketing and general management at Pizza Hut, says that since the player became available on Wal-Mart's Web site and has gotten press coverage, he has received "hundreds of e-mails saying, 'We will watch more movies with this.' When people watch more movies, that's good for Hollywood." source: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2004-05-05-clearplay-main_x.htm - -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- edited by Doser published on: 2004-05-07 comments to [email protected] subscribe Newsletter - -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- 
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