House to back DVD-editing ability

WASHINGTON — When Jeff Weidle, a Houston father of two, wanted to watch the thriller "I, Robot" with his family recently, he had no qualms about buying a DVD of the PG-13-rated film, even though he normally shuns violence and nudity in television and movies.

Weidle, who is a conservative Christian, simply slipped the disc into a special DVD player from Utah-based ClearPlay Inc.

The device allows him to filter out a range of potentially objectionable content. Instead of watching the version that most consumers saw in the theater, Weidle's version was sanitized.

Now, Congress is poised to give a boost to the ClearPlay system that Weidle uses. This week, the House is expected to pass — and send to President Bush — legislation that would immunize the content-skipping technology from lawsuits brought by the movie industry.

The legislation, which faces muted opposition, would shield a burgeoning industry that caters to people who want to watch Hollywood blockbusters without gore, profanity or sex. ClearPlay is just one such company; some other firms, such as the Utah-based CleanFlicks, edit out the content from movie DVDs and rent the sterilized versions to subscribers.

The companies argue that if Hollywood won't clean up its act, they have a right to do it for them.

But the movie industry disagrees — and has mounted a legal challenge designed to stop the companies, who they argue are violating their intellectual property rights and trampling the creative control of directors.

Eight major studios and the Directors Guild of America have filed lawsuits against ClearPlay, CleanFlicks and other, similar companies, on behalf of Robert Redford, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and other Hollywood icons.

Congress is intervening with the legislation, which would give a green light to ClearPlay — the company that doesn't permanently alter authorized DVDs. CleanFlicks and other companies that create unauthorized, edited versions of DVDs — and then rent those copies to consumers — could still be challenged in court under the bill.

The Senate passed the legislation unanimously Feb. 1, and the House is set to take up the measure either March 15 or 16.

Supporters, such as Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, and Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who sponsored the legislation in the House, say the technology rightly gives consumers more control over what they see and hear.

The technology "simply gives parents the right to define what they see when they rent a movie," Smith said.

That's the kind of control Weidle said he wanted.