BYU NewsNet - U.S. court finds fault in video editing

A federal district court in Denver, Colo., ruled last week that the editing of movie content on DVDs or VHS tapes is a violation of federal copyright laws, effectually closing down some popular Utah video stores.

The decision came after a three-year legal battle between Utah movie-editing companies - including CleanFlicks, Play It Clean Video and CleanFilms - and 16 Hollywood directors.

The companies now have five days to discontinue production of the edited movies and relinquish their movie inventories to authorities. If further appeals by the companies also end in defeat, the retail stores that sell edited movies will also be unable to distribute the products.

According to the Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch issued the 16-page decision last Thursday, saying movie editing harmed the movie rights of Hollywood directors and studios.

"Their [studios and directors] objective ... is to stop the infringement because of its irreparable injury to the creative artistic expression in the copyrighted movies," Matsch said in a recent AP article. "There is a public interest in providing such protection."

The businesses named in the suit must stop the production and manufacture of the edited movies, as well as turn over their inventory within five days of the ruling.

"It's sad that Hollywood finds it wrong to take out profanity, sexual content and nudity," said Daniel Thompson, owner of the CleanFlicks retail stores in Utah County. "Hopefully we'll be granted a stay."

The movies edited by companies like CleanFlicks are burned onto blank discs and sold to consumers through the Internet or retail stores around the country.

If the courts do not grant the editing companies a stay, allowing them to remain in business until they can complete the appeals process, the companies will likely be forced to shut down their businesses; however, it is unclear exactly how the ruling will affect the retail stores.

"I'll continue business as usual until I'm told differently," Thompson said.

Several other local companies have also been involved in the movie-editing business since the late '90s. Carol Biesinger, former owner of Sunrise Family Video, said her business aimed to provide family-friendly entertainment.

Biesinger's video store did not originally edit DVDs, but rather copies of VHS tapes already owned by customers. When Sunrise began editing nude scenes out of Paramount's "Titanic," they were asked to stop the service by Paramount.

However, Biesinger refused because her store edited only copies of the movie owned by the customer, so the copy was the customer's to use at their discretion.

"I think it's valuable for society to have clean entertainment, though just having an edited video does not make it good," Biesinger said. "It's important to have entertainment in your home that is in accordance with your values."

The recent ruling threatens to remove a portion of the customer base for R-rated movies. Because of the values of many Utah families, R-rated movies are not as popular here as in other areas of the country.

"I would not watch R-rated movies if there were no edited versions," said Cora Wallin, a recent graduate of BYU. "I appreciate that producers try to send a message with their film, but I believe it's possible for them to send that message without the crude content that requires an R-rating."

Even though CleanFlicks and similar companies supply much of the edited movies to the country, there are other means for the movie business to explore. Edited versions of movies are often produced for airlines to show during flight, but these versions have not yet been made available to the public.