Due to lawsuit, RCA drops DVDs with ClearPlay filters

RCA said it is halting U.S. manufacture and sale of DVD players with ClearPlay's content-filtering technology.

It cited a suit by Florida-based Nissim Corp. that alleges the Salt Lake firm's technology for filtering violence, sex and language violates four patents it holds.

Thomson-RCA notified ClearPlay that it was halting manufacturing and sales of the players in the United States because of a patent-infringement lawsuit filed by the Boca Raton company.

"Nissim is alleging that we infringe on patents that don't even apply to DVD," said Matthew Jarman, who with his brother Lee founded ClearPlay, in a statement. "These legal issues will be sorted out and we will move on."

ClearPlay said it will continue to develop and support filters for the RCA players.

The company also said other ClearPlay-enabled products are scheduled for U.S. introduction later this year.

"We are working with many manufacturers and others in consumer electronics," chief executive Bill Aho said.

He said company policy prohibits him from naming the companies.

ClearPlay also faces legal challenges from Hollywood studios and film directors opposed to unauthorized editing of movies.

ClearPlay's technology embeds movie-specific filtering files that instruct the player where to cut out unwanted violence and sexual content, or mute foul language. The players come with filters for 100 popular movies pre-installed; for $4.95 per month, or $49 a year, customers can download and install hundreds more, including new filters sent out as movies are released.

In its suit, Nissim contends the Jarmans had contacted it in 2000 concerning patents related to the Florida company's own CustomPlay-brand DVD applications.

Nissim also claims it provided the Jarmans with a demonstration copy of CustomPlay.