# CleanFlicks v. Kate Winslet's Breasts



## Nick

*How Hollywood won a lawsuit while losing a cultural battle *

Welcome to the landmark legal case of CleanFlicks et al. v. Kate Winslet's Titanic Breasts.

Our story thus far: CleanFlicks is one of several companies that clean up sex and violence and foul language in movies and then sell the bowdlerized versions (which are clearly labeled as such) to their mostly religious customers. Among the sanitizers' most widely reported edits was the redaction of Winslet's breasts from the arty scenes in James Cameron's Titanic.

Such simple acts of repurposing content ran afoul of, among others, the Directors Guild of America, which claimed that such actions infringed on moviemakers' copyright protections. Now, according to an account at E! Online, "a federal judge in Denver has ordered several companies to cease and desist from editing out movie content they find offensive."


> "[Moviemakers'] objective...is to stop the infringement because of its irreparable injury to the creative artistic expression in the copyrighted movies," the judge wrote. "There is a public interest in providing such protection. Their business is illegitimate." [Judge Richard P.] Matsch ordered CleanFlicks and the other defendants 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.


 "Audiences can now be assured that the films they buy or rent are the vision of the filmmakers who made them and not the arbitrary choices of a third-party editor," filmmaker and Director's Guild head Michael Apted told the press. ...

More @ http://www.reason.com/links/links071106.shtml


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## JM Anthony

This seems like a no brainer to me. I can't imagine what those companies were thinking of when they altered the movies. Smells like a copyright issue to me. I wish they would have had their bu**s sued. Would have given us something for the evening news. <<Rant=on>> Why do idiots think they have the right to censor things like this. If their target audience is too genteel to see a woman's breasts without turning to stone, they shouldn't watch the movie in the first place. I mean they had gambling, lots of people croakin'. And this was a pretty long movie!! <<Rant=off>>

John


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## Bogy

God created Ms Winslet's breasts (I will assume He did anyway, until I have proof in hand that He didn't), and it seems to me to be sacrilegious to censor His creation.


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## cdru

JM Anthony said:


> Why do idiots think they have the right to censor things like this.


Because it's a free country. They aren't forcing you to watch it. Copyright infringement reasons aside, they are essentially a value added reseller. They take a basic product, in this case a DVD, do something with it, and then resell it to people who what the changes.

I compare it in some ways to someone who buys a conversion van. The automaker makes a vehicle and sells it to the customization shop. The shop cuts it, hacks it, modifying it to how they want it. Then they put it on the market for you to purchase because it was what you were looking for.

I don't necessarily agree with what they are doing and I would never purchase their services, but I fully understand why people would. I put it in the same boat as child protection software for surfing the internet. I don't use it and don't encourage it, but if you want to use it, knock yourself out.

But copyright issues back into the picture, they are modifying and reselling the work, as a whole. Away around the issue is to create a custom DVD player, then ship the unmodified DVD along with some form of a data file that has the scene positions marked. When the player gets to that scene position, it skips over the offending section. Presto, you haven't modified the work but still have solved the "problem" of seeing Kate's breasts.


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## skidog

Amen Bogy!!


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## BaldEagle

Why can't I remember seeing Kate's breast when watching that movies?


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## Laverne

Because you weren't paying attention to the artsy-fartsy part.  It was when Rose let Jack draw her portrait with the necklace around her neck.


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## Bogy

BaldEagle said:


> Why can't I remember seeing Kate's breast when watching that movies?


You obviously slept through that part. What a mistake. :lol:


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## skidog

Best part of the movie!


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## dpd146

Too bad the scene was surrounded by 3 hours of crap.


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## Pepper

cdru said:


> Because it's a free country. They aren't forcing you to watch it. Copyright infringement reasons aside, they are essentially a value added reseller. They take a basic product, in this case a DVD, do something with it, and then resell it to people who what the changes.


Exactly. If this company can get sued for altering the movie, while providing a service people actually want, then they should also be suing the TV broadcasters which alter the movie by time-compression, "format to fit your screen", squished credits, voiceovers, advertising popups, and station logo bugs in the corner. Oh, I guess the director WANTED his movie seen like that.


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## dpd146

Pepper said:


> Exactly. If this company can get sued for altering the movie, while providing a service people actually want, then they should also be suing the TV broadcasters which alter the movie by time-compression, "format to fit your screen", squished credits, voiceovers, advertising popups, and station logo bugs in the corner. Oh, I guess the director WANTED his movie seen like that.


The tv broadcasters secure the rights to the movies.

I don't see a problem with what CleanFlicks is doing unless they are buying one copy then mass producing the clean copies.


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## Pepper

If it's the company I've heard of before, I believe they are buying one legit copy (and scratching it or otherwise disabling its playback) for each edited copy sold; the original is included with the edited copy.


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## tomcrown1

:gott: Hey Hey it will kill you if we see woman's breast. Rember the hub bub with Janet's non breast at the superbowl?? We can't see a woman's breast it is sinful and will put you into the brim of HELL A M E N:bowdown:


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## Bogy

You would think that a woman breastfeeding her child in public was a Jezebel attempting to bring down the morals of the nation. Yeah, breastfeeding is a real turnon. Although breast milk IS very good.  Americans have a real hangup when it comes to the female breast.


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## Nick

Bogy said:


> You would think that a woman breastfeeding her child in public was a Jezebel attempting to bring down the morals of the nation. Yeah, breastfeeding is a real turnon. Although breast milk IS very good.  Americans have a real hangup when it comes to the female breast.


I don't think I would like breast milk, but if women ever start
giving porkchops, that will definitely get my attention! :grin:


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## Bogy

Nick said:


> I don't think I would like breast milk, but if women ever start
> giving porkchops, that will definitely get my attention! :grin:


You don't know until you've tried it. But you may not ever have the chance at your advanced age. I got a taste when my wife was breast feeding each of our three.


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## rickfromthesticks

This is ridiculous, if these movies were pirated that's one thing, but if the consumer is paying a legitimate price for them SO WHAT!

The next time I have 2 days with absolutely nothing to do I still won't watch Titanic, but if my grandchildren (5 and 7) want to, why not let them without whatever I might find offensive to them? As stated before, every broadcast tv station would cut or edit it. Yes, they bought the rights, but so did I when I bought the DVD, at least in my own private exhibition, as they say. 

I think it's a sad state of affairs in this nation when people think I do not have the right to be non-offended. You can legally buy your porn, so why can't I buy something "clean" enough to play in any company?
Rick


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## Greg Bimson

rickfromthesticks said:


> I think it's a sad state of affairs in this nation when people think I do not have the right to be non-offended. You can legally buy your porn, so why can't I buy something "clean" enough to play in any company?


Because the network, when buying the right to show Titanic over the network, must also follow strict FCC guidelines. So, when the movie studios sell Titanic to the networks, the contracts allow for editing what the FCC will not allow a television station to show.

It is a given that the producers of these "edited" copies do not have a contract with the movie studios to reproduce clean versions of the movies. We are talking about specific copyright law here.


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## cj9788

Maybe the movie studios should offer sanitized versions of flicks to tap that market. If it is all about the buck then they should have no problem doing so. I belive that they would rather ignore the market that wants to buy clean movies rather than exploit that said markt. IMO it is no diffrent than the recording industry selling a radio edit of a CD at the local record store. If it is done with music why dont the movie studios do it with Movies. Why not sell the Television edits for the people who would rather not watch the boobs or hear the cuss words.


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## cj9788

BTW I have no probelma with boobs. I like boobs. The more boobs the better. Big boobs, small boobs, ample boos, flat boobs, I love the boob tube and figure the more boobs on the tube the better. The only boobs I do not like are the boobs we are no longer allowed to talk about the ones in capitol city divided by parties wanting us to choose them in the late fall. Those boobs I can do without.


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## pez2002

cj9788 said:


> BTW I have no probelma with boobs. I like boobs. The more boobs the better. Big boobs, small boobs, ample boos, flat boobs, I love the boob tube and figure the more boobs on the tube the better. The only boobs I do not like are the boobs we are no longer allowed to talk about the ones in capitol city divided by parties wanting us to choose them in the late fall. Those boobs I can do without.


I love boobs too


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## Chris Blount

Closed at the request of the OP.


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