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Links: ClearPlay DVD Players Coming Soon to a Wal-Mart Near You
Posted by James Grimmelmann on Friday, April 09 @ 10:19:30 EDT Clean Flicks
RCA has announced that it will be making a DVD player incorporating ClearPlay's technology to filter sex, violence, and bad language out of DVDs. Until now, ClearPlay has been available only as software that sanitizes DVDs played on a computer.

ClearPlay, of course, is a co-defendant in the Clean Flicks case, in which the Directors' Guild of America is suing various makers of "cleaned" DVDs and manufacturers of software to skip offensive scenes. But ClearPlay is the first to see its technology embedded in mass-market consumer hardware.

Two pieces of this story jump out as especially newsworthy. First, thanks to Janet Jackson, general public sentiment is probably more favorable to ClearPlay and its co-defendants than it was when the lawsuit was filed in late 2002. Arguing against a product that allows parents to control what their children see is even more of an uphill rhetorical battle than it was before.

And second, not only RCA, but also major retailers -- Wal-Mart and Kmart -- are confident enough in the legality of the players that they're going ahead with their plans in the face of Hollywood's protests. In that sense, the move is both a vote on the strength of the case and as a public slap in the face to the DGA.

 
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· More about Clean Flicks
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The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.

How is this not a DMCA violation? (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Friday, April 09 @ 14:37:40 EDT
Isn't CSS a valid access and copy control device? Is there any way to edit a DVD without bypassing CSS? The only way out would be to get a license for the implementation from the DVD-CCA. And since they are controlled by the major studios why would they license it?


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Re: ClearPlay DVD Players Coming Soon to a Wal-Mart Near You (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Friday, April 23 @ 22:51:02 EDT
I wonder how manny ppl will want that.
cialis [www.geocities.com]


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Re: ClearPlay DVD Players Coming Soon to a Wal-Mart Near You (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Thursday, July 01 @ 23:17:43 EDT
Hollywood has a lot of corruption and money already. Have why do we have DVD regions?
I lived in the UK and bought a heap of region 2 DVDs. Now moved to Austtralia and Hollwood are telling me to buy them all again so I can watch them region 4(australia) as I'm not suppose to own a region free player. Yeah right - Wake up Hollywood! If I want to buy a movie and watch most of it but skip a few parts that offend me that's my choice just like the neightbor can choose to watch it all.
I'd love to have a logical debate with these hollywood goons. The only way these crazy laws are passed is because of corruption in Govt and Hollywood payoffs.


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