ClearPlay DIY censor eyes BluRay, TV
p2pnet view Freedom | P2P:- ClearPlay, the family DIY censor system, has reached the shores of Britain.
Or as the BBC puts it, “A controversial new DVD system that can censor films is to be released in the UK later this year”.
Except is isn’t so new and it’s not very clear.
In 2004, “ClearPlay’s ‘staff of movie professionals’ go through ‘individual movies and identify content which may have contributed to a movie’s PG-13 or R rating”, said p2pnet.
And “The Passion of the Christ is, for example, OK (extreme blood and hard-core sadism in every frame) and Schindler’s List (a wonderful historical piece, but shocking in its portrayal of horrors perpetrated under the Nazi regime) won’t be altered, wrote Claudia Puig in her USA TODAY story.
But ClearPlay chopped flicks such as 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.
What fell under the NotSoClearPlay knife in 2010?
The likes of Princess and the Frog; Did You Hear About the Morgans?; Astro Boy; and, Up in the Air.
Says the BBC, “The system requires a compatible DVD player and a monthly subscription costing $7.99 (£5). Users download a regularly-updated database of movie information, containing timecodes of potentially offensive content.
“This ‘meta-data’ tells the player when to jump past a scene or cut the volume.”
But, “The company admits film makers could, in theory, object to having sections of their work missed out”.
Not in theory, however.
As p2pnet noted in 2006, “Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Norman Jewison were among Hollywood producers who … 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,” said E Online.
Now, “ClearPlay says it hopes to expand beyond DVD into BluRay and TV channels delivered over the internet (IPTV)”, says the Beeb.
Stay tuned.
..… and identi.ca
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
DIY censor system – ClearPlay family DIY censor, March 22, 2010
BBC – Controversial DVD censoring system to be launched in UK, March 25, 2010
p2pnet – Profanity nudity violence = $, May 12, 2004
USA TODAY – ClearPlay edit can be the unkindest cut, May 5, 2004
p2pnet – Movie sanitizers sanitized, July 11, 2006
E Online – Judge Scrubs Movie Sanitizers, July 10, 2006
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March 26th, 2010 at 11:05 am
Watch as they instantly regret this decision.
March 26th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Already enough censor on TV
They censored the book in the new south park on UK TV… and they wonder why we download illegal from the US where they don’t censor as if they were china or the UK
May 22nd, 2010 at 10:47 pm
Well I own one. After a day at work where various coworkers feel the need to toss the f bomb around, (I call them on it occasionally, but then who wants confrontation), it is nice to catch a good movie on the telly. Except even PG or PG13 will throw that in. Why pay for a movie to have my TV cuss at me ? Avoiding reality ? Absolutely, for 90 minutes while I watch the movie, it’s fiction right ? So for a few bucks a month my TV doesn’t swear at me anymore ? Yeah, I’ll pay it. You don’t like your movies that way. Good for you, Clearplay has absolutely nothing to do with that. They also do not provide edited versions of movies. The machine simply operates the mute and fast forward for you. Don’t like me liking bleeped movies, tough nougies, my house, my TV and my Clearplay
. Hope you all have a great day.