Censor Services Push Forward

Found on Wired on Thursday, 03 March 2005
Browse Censorship

Legislation that would allow people to automatically skip over objectionable content in movies viewed at home sailed through a key House subcommittee on Thursday and looks to be on the fast track.

The House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property passed S167/HR357, known as the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, with little debate. The full Senate passed its identical bill on a voice vote on Feb. 1.

The legislation would essentially affirm the legality of software such as ClearPlay, which automatically edits supposedly objectionable scenes out of popular movie titles. Several DVD players now come ClearPlay-enabled and work with more than 1,000 movie titles.

"Just as the author of a book should not be able to force someone to read that book in any particular manner or order, a studio or director should not be able to force parents or their children to watch a movie in a particular way," said bill sponsor and subcommittee chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas).

I don't know how Lamar Smith reads books, but I sure wouldn't want to skip over pages or read it backwards. Same goes for movies; if it contains scenes someone doesn't want to see, why watch the movie at all? That's like: "Eww, it has porn in it, let me see!". Personal thought: Is it Lamar or Lamer?