Should companies be allowed to filter content from movies without permission from filmmakers'.

• Position: Point Counter Point

Yes

Bill Aho

CEO, ClearPlay

THIS IS REALLY A MATTER of personal rights and individual freedoms. In our country, we start with the presumption that we are granted a broad spectrum of rights, presuming we are not hurting anyone or damaging the fabric of society.

ClearPlay filters objectionable content out of DVD's without impacting the DVD at all. In fact, ClearPlay never touches the DVD. It acts as a turbo-charged remote control, skipping and muting over parts of a movie you may not want your family to see. You can still watch the original, untouched DVD, but now you have another choice.

So start with the question "What's the harm in that?" In the privacy of your home, you may decide your family would like to watch The Patriot, but there are a few gruesome scenes that might be unsettling, so you decide to skip over them. If you know where they are, you can fast-forward through them. Or you could watch the movie with ClearPlay, which automatically skips those scenes.

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) would have us believe that in doing so we have somehow trampled upon their artistic integrity. Don't be fooled. Ask yourself, or the DGA, the following questions:

If Erin Brockovich isn't an acceptable movie without 27 "F-words," why did the director agree to make a TV version? (Substitute about any movie you would like.)

If the DGA really believes in "artistic rights," then why aren't they willing to extend them to all of the artists involved in a movie, not just the directors?

And finally, given that the economics of the average R-rated movie are vastly inferior to family-rated alternatives, why does Hollywood continue to make two out of every three movies R-rated?

Ask Hollywood executives why they told a presidential committee that they support more controls for parents, but when effective controls like ClearPlay become available, they try to put them out of business.

Ask Hollywood why their "solution" is for parents to just say no to kids, when they are spending $30 million per movie convincing children to go.

Ask them why, according to the Parents Television Council, they still haven't complied with their agreement to stop advertising R-rated movies to kids.

And then, very humbly, ask them if your family might please have their permission to watch a PG-13 movie with just a little less blood, fewer "F-words," and one less shot of frontal nudity.

Now tell me, why should you have to ask?

No

Steve Salles

Film Critic, Ogden Standard-Examiner

...