Review Sony Announces ‘Clean Version’ Initiative

ant-mac

Member: Rank 9
And you're a better man for it. I only researched it because my wife is a fan of both franchises. The less said about any of that, the better.
Keep a record of that. Twenty years from now, you might be able to blackmail her with that information... You never know.
I think I might have been there. I think that was the same weekend I spotted Bigfoot. Hell, all this time I was chalking all of that up to a lost weekend and bad peyote.
Oh, that was you!

Hey, I'm real sorry about stunning you and that whole anal probing business... It was all Bigfoot's idea. Honest...
 

chainsaw_metal1

Member: Rank 8
No need to apologize. Do you know what you have to pay in Vegas for a decent anal probing? And all you and Bigfoot did was take a twenty out of my wallet. No harm, no foul.
 

ant-mac

Member: Rank 9
But always let them win. They're known for pulling people's arms out of their sockets when they lose.
I know. On the same day he borrowed twenty off me too... Do you think I was silly enough to refuse?

And he never paid me back either!

He said it was so he could buy an anniversary present for his wife, Chewmeout...
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
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Adam McKay says he didn't agree to let airline and broadcast TV versions of 'Step Brothers' and 'Talladega Nights' be purchased by the public at large, while the DGA is looking into whether the Sony program violates contractual agreements.

“Holy shit,” Seth Rogen tweeted last week, “please don’t do this to our movies.” The comedian is one of many artists who have jumped into the fray as studios and streaming services try out “cleaned up” versions of their pictures for consumers.

Days after Sony announced a plan to offer santized editions of it's films — the versions shown on airlines and broadcast TV but not otherwise available — the DGA is voicing displeasure.

“Directors have the right to edit their feature films for every non-theatrical platform, plain and simple. Taking a director’s edit for one platform and then releasing it on another — without giving the director the opportunity to edit — violates our agreement,” the guild tells The Hollywood Reporter. “As creators of their films, directors often dedicate years of hard work to realize their full vision, and they rightfully have a vested interest in protecting that work. We are committed to vigorously defending against the unauthorized alteration of films.”

The guild says it is looking into Sony’s plan, and the studio insists that it consulted the 18 directors whose watered-down features are part of its new “Clean Version” initiative, designed to lure family audiences that might otherwise avoid them. (Rogen’s Sony movies notably aren’t included.)


But it is news to Adam McKay that his films Step Brothers (2008) and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) are on the list. "The Clean Version initiative is news to Adam McKay. He would not have agreed to this," says a rep for the filmmaker.

Sony Home Entertainment president Man Jit Singh counters in a statement: "We discussed this program, and the use of these pre-existing versions, with each director or their representatives.

"This is a pilot program, developed in response to specific consumer feedback, that offers viewers the option of watching an airline or TV version of certain movies when they purchase the original version," the Sony executive says.

Clean Version titles can be bought on several digital services, including iTunes. The airline and broadcast TV editions are bundled with the original rated film. The Clean Version of Adam McKay’s Step Brothers excludes 152 instances of bad language, 91 instances of sexual content and 22 instances of violence. Other bowdlerized titles include the Spider-Man series, Captain Phillips and even Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

So far, no other studio has moved forward with its own “clean” initiative, even as conservatives insist there’s a lucrative market for it. “I would think you are looking at a doubling of potential revenue streams,” argues Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council, though he offers no substantial evidence to back that claim.

In response to this article, filmmaker Judd Apatow, who doesn't have a film on the list, blasted Sony in a tweet: "This is absolute bullshit and @sony and @SonyPictures is gonna get hell for F—ING with our movies. Shove the clean versions up your asses!"

Meanwhile, other studios are fighting a starting company’s attempts to offer unlicensed filtered content. After Fox, Disney and Warner Bros. sued VidAngel for copyright infringement, the firm tells THR that it will comply with their concerns — sort of. It still will provide filtered content (or, in this case, content to which consumers can apply filters for sex, language, etc.) but only through Netflix, Amazon or HBO, all of which pay the studios a license fee. Money, it seems, matters even more than modesty.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Court Rules Against VidAngel’s ‘Clean’ Film Edits


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The debate over sanitising films with ‘clean’ versions edited for objectionable content took a new turn today with a court ruling against the VOD streaming service VidAngel according to ArsTechnica.

The service buys movie discs, decrypts, rips them and then streams versions that allow customers to filter out nudity, profanity, and violence to make it family friendly. Some 2,500 different film titles in all were available on the service.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals has now ruled that the service is breaking US copyright law and breached the rights of Disney, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros. Pictures. They indicate VidAngel didn’t have the permission in the first place to stream the content.

As a result they don’t fall under the protection of fair use or the 2005 Family Movie Act, the latter allows the cracking of encryption to remove objectionable material as long as no fixed copy of the new altered version is created:

“Star Wars is still Star Wars, even without Princess Leia’s bikini scene…. VidAngel’s interpretation would create a giant loophole in copyright law, sanctioning infringement so long as it filters some content and a copy of the work was lawfully purchased at some point. But virtually all piracy of movies originates in some way from a legitimate copy.

If the mere purchase of an authorized copy alone precluded infringement liability under the FMA, the statute would severely erode the commercial value of the public performance right in the digital context, permitting, for example, unlicensed streams which filter out only a movie’s credits.”

The appeals court upheld a lower court decision that issued a December injunction against the VidAngel service, which recently raised $10 million. The service was shut down in December and now will remain so, but they did recently start a new service in June that filters Amazon and Netflix streams. There hasn’t yet been a court ruling on this service.
 

filmfan95

Member: Rank 3
I agree that having the clean versions of films be released on DVD and such is pretty stupid.

But with that said, I wouldn't mind having a copy of National Lampoon's Vacation with the "Christopher Columbo" line in it. I actually thought that was funnier than the original line.
 
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