ClearPlay family DIY censor
p2pnet view Freedom | P2P:- ClearPlay, the family DIY censor system, has returned.
And this time it really means bidniz!
“ClearPlay’s unauthorized censorship is mostly ignorant ideological desecration, rather like the Nazi book burnings and similar censorship from 65 years ago”, said Dr P. Rapoport in a 2004 Reader’s Write to a story on ClearPlay.
The app had hacked, literally, “the likes of American Splendor, Big Fish, Cat in the Hat, The Haunted Mansion, The Last Samurai, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Master And Commander, The School of Rock, Timeline and Win A Date With Tad Hamilton”, said p2pnet in a later post, continuing:
“Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Norman Jewison were among Hollywood producers who later complained about ClearPlay and other companies … ”
US district court judge Richard P. Matsch ultimately ordered Video II, Glen Dickman, J.W.D. Management Corporation, Trilogy Studios Inc., CleanFlicks, MyCleanFlicks, Family Shield Technologies, LLC, ClearPlay Inc., Clean Cut Cinemas, Family Safe Media, EditMyMovies, Family Flix, USALLC and Play It Clean Video, to, “hand over their entire inventory of scrubbed flicks to the five major Hollywood studios and stop ‘producing, manufacturing, creating’ and renting the cleaned-up material within five days or face possible court action, including the likelihood of massive penalties,” says E Online.
Now, “ClearPlay DVD player works with standard DVDs”, says the company, adding:
“Included in your purchase is a small thumb drive about the size of a keychain. Just plug this into the USB drive on your computer, log in to your account on our website and download the ClearPlay movie Filters. ClearPlay works by telling the player what scenes to skip. Just put the thumb drive into your player, select what you want the player to skip- everything from profanity to nudity. Then just relax and enjoy the show!”
Currently being filtered for your viewing pleasure are >>>
- Princess and the Frog
- Did You Hear About the Morgans?
- Astro Boy
- Up in the Air
Thank GOD for that! I mean, Princess and the Frog?
And all for a paltry $120.00.
Thank you, ClearPlay. Thank you!
Who decides what you should see and what you shouldn’t see?
“Q. How do you determine which movies to filter?
“A. Each week our Filter Developers create new Filters based on what new DVD releases are available, what titles have been requested by our customers, and what movies are box-office favorites.”
JN
..… and identi.ca
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
ClearPlay – Profanity nudity violence = $, May 12, 2004
p2pnet – Movie sanitizers sanitized, July 11, 2006
E Online – Judge Scrubs Movie Sanitizers, July 10, 2006
March, 2010
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March 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
The first comment I posted was “censored” apparently, as it did not show up. You will notice that I am not invoking Nazi comparisons, nor am I claiming a violation of my human rights. It was censored (probably automatically) by Jon’s blog, and neither Jon, nor his blog are the government, hence any Nazi comparison or claim of human rights violation would just be stupid. Now, for my original message:
I don’t really see the problem with this. “Who decides what you should see and what you shouldn’t see?” You do. If you don’t want the filtering, don’t buy the player, or if you do buy the player, turn off the filters. There is no government mandate that you have to buy and use one.
“ClearPlay’s unauthorized censorship is mostly ignorant ideological desecration, rather like the Nazi book burnings and similar censorship from 65 years ago” Really? Skipping scenes or parts there of from movies makes you a Nazi? If Grandma buys a book, and blacks out the naughty bits because “[in the best old lady screech you can muster] It’s just plain nasty!” is she now a Nazi? Where does it end? If I skip the music video in Better off Dead because I think it’s a painful laps in judgment in an otherwise classic flick, am I a Nazi?
I have a big problem with people who screech violation of rights, or invoke the Nazi comparison when someone does something they don’t like. It happens so often, that when an actual violation of someone’s human rights does occur, very few are willing to listen. Before speaking up and making fools of themselves, people would be well advised to understand the difference between self-imposed censorship, and government mandated censorship. Nazi censorship was government mandated, Clearplay is just someone automating the fast-forward button.
March 22nd, 2010 at 4:50 pm
They are doing it wrong.
Why not just filter the whole flick?
March 22nd, 2010 at 6:09 pm
@ Aaron:
Go and complain to Akismet. It has a mind of its own often blocking stuff that doesn’t need blocking and leaving in stuff that does.
Meanwhile, Rapoport’s comments are extreme. And you’re quite correct. No one has to buy this
nonsenseI meanrubbishI mean application.On the other hand, IMHO, anyone who’s prepared to rely on something like ClearPlay to censor content on their behalf has a serious problem to begin with.
Cheers!
March 22nd, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Man, I thought those clowns went out of business when the Renaissance came in. This outdated mode of thinking is just what the loonies in the religious sector need now. Hell, after reading this story, it reminded me of some half whacked anti-virus program I tried, because I got taken in by it’s so called over the top ratings on how good it was. Well, I tried it only to have all my templates in Microsoft Office, the majority of the words in the dictionary and I forget what else now, shoveled off into the recycle bin due to it’s filters deciding that any word like analyze, asterisk, bumped, and a plethora of other words were all pornographically related.
Not one of the templates or words chosen by this program’s filter had anything to do with pornography. Yet, like this ClearPlay DVD player, the company created a filter that is too broad in it’s scanning parameters. No matter what movie and I no matter what movie up to and including Snow White and the Seven Dwarves or Bambi would be safe from this piece of garbage. Here’s hoping that the next time this bunch is hauled into court by the major studios for scrubbing scenes that THEY feel are wrong or they get nailed by some parents group for ruining a priceless childhood memory of Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Flubber, Son of Flubber, or even Ol’ Yeller, mayhap this time they’ll be put out of business.
March 22nd, 2010 at 8:06 pm
Where’s the ClearPlay censor for real life? The one that bleeps all bad words out in public and shields your eyes from anything unpleasant?
At least the mom in the photo is hot…
March 23rd, 2010 at 9:46 am
A family that has values differnt than yours doesn’t even have to be religious to want entertainment free of a certain level of violence or sexual situations or profanity.
March 23rd, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Hi Jon.
“Go and complain to Akismet. It has a mind of its own often blocking stuff that doesn’t need blocking and leaving in stuff that does.”
Sorry if what I said came across as complaining. I wasn’t. Or at least, I wasn’t complaining about you or your blog. I was just complaining about people who fail to understand the difference between government censorship, and personal choice. I figured it was something like Akismet.
As to your point about having serious problems. I’m not trying to troll, and I don’t own, nor will I likely buy one of these machines. But I am curious. What is so wrong with using one of these machines? If your families values are such that you find excessive foul language bothersome, what’s wrong with using this machine to help you hear less of it? Is it the machine that you have a problem with? Or the fact that people want to self-censor their movies?
March 23rd, 2010 at 3:36 pm
@ Aaron:
“If your families values are such that you find excessive foul language bothersome … ”
I’m a dad and a family man and if a flick is that bad, we don’t watch it. Period.
As to self-censoring, fine. But this isn’t. It’s paying someone else to do it for you, and I find that not only wierd, but alarming.
Cheers!
(PS – Unfortunately, someone else is using ‘Aaron’ to send a lot of spam, which is why your name keeps getting monitored. Sorry, mate.)
March 23rd, 2010 at 5:44 pm
“It’s paying someone else to do it for you, and I find that not only wierd, but alarming.”
If what I don’t want to see/hear I have to see/hear to censor it myself, why make the censored version? I just saw/heard it during the editing process. if I don’t want to see/hear something then obviously someone else has to do it for me or i will see/hear it editing it myself.
March 24th, 2010 at 10:52 am
Hi Jon.
I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree then. I don’t see the weirdness in that.
However, looks like we have the same approach. If a movie comes around that is offensive to us, we don’t watch it.
Thanks for the update on the Spam thing. Good luck with that. Stupid spammers! If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.
March 25th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
From a testimonial in their sidebar:
“I have four children, all in their teens, that I have tried as long as I can to prevent them from hearing or seeing anything that I think will pollute their minds, especially from watching TV. I discourage them even to watch the PG movies. With your invention, I know that we will have more movie selections to watch. I thank you very much, and I pray that God will bless you always for what you have done.”
Sick. Truly sick.
March 25th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Re: “From a testimonial in their sidebar”
We have one daughter, aged 13. We make sure she sees and hears everything she’ll need to help her on her way, including books and movies which challenge her, and which give us opportunities to explain how to not let the pollution she’ll come across every day poison her mind and her warp her beliefs. Thankfully, we don’t need to waste our money on artificial means to do that.
Cheers!
September 20th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Some of us dislike seeing sex scenes. This allows us to skip them without worrying about it.
Cheers!
November 16th, 2010 at 7:57 am
Just want to tune in and say that being introduced to sex and violence at a young age does effect kids in a bad way, anyone who cares enough to research it can see the long term studies done show that it does. So with that said and done if a company out there wants to give me peace of mind to not have to hide some movies that I enjoy, but that my kids are not old enough to watch yet then so be it. Some people might take censoring to an extreme for their kids, but that is there choice, just like it’s your choice to not censor at all. As far as the people who say its wrong to censor something I could care less, If I bought it and own it then I can do what I want with it. If Nazi’s are free to have a rally and promote racial hate, then I sure as hell better be free to choose how my children or I watch a damn movie.
“Sometimes if there is too much freedom exercised then democracy will be destroyed,”
~Abdullah Ahmad Badawi~