"This court is not free to determine the social value of copyrighted works. What is protected are the creator's rights to protect its creation in the form in which it was created."

Conflict between the squeaky-clean distributors and the film executives began in 1998, when an American Fork theater sliced scenes of a topless Kate Winslet and a back-seat love scene from the Academy Award-winning film "Titanic." Paramount Pictures then pulled the film from the theater. And later that year, Paramount sent Utah County video shop Sunrise Family Video the same message about its chopped version.

Some distributors have left the small but competitive industry since the suit was filed. Sunrise Family Video no longer distributes edited films.

"There's such a market for it," Thompson said, adding he has about 580 members between his Provo and Orem locations alone. "I'm really sad."

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Contributing: Associated Press

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E-mail: astowell@desnews.com