Movie editors racing against clock

OREM — The educational value of such movies as "Silence of the Lambs" or "Austin Powers" may not be easily identified, even if the films have been stripped of any profanity, sex and violence.

But it's the premise — that scrubbing of the big-screen blockbusters for educational purposes is legal and allowed under the law — that keeps one Orem movie-rental store open for business.

The legal argument, though, may be on shaky footing, considering that last July U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch ruled that movie-editing companies and vendors — like Utah County's CleanFlicks — cause "irreparable injury to the creative artistic expression in the copyrighted movies" and should be shut down, according to court documents.

So, how is a store that rents and sells edited movies, Flix Club, 908 S. State, Orem, still open? Flix Club owner Daniel Thompson says the ruling isn't a law yet, and until it is he operates under the so-called "educational loophole" in copyright law.

However, attorneys, experts on copyright law and even Thompson himself agree it's almost a race against the clock to see how long that loophole can hold out against Hollywood.

"I run things as if I could be shut down at anytime," said Thompson, who formerly owned four CleanFlicks stores in Utah County. "And that would be really sad, but that's reality. You have to face the facts. If they called me tomorrow and said, 'We (changed) the loophole, I'll comply."'

Thompson's supplier, Flick's Club in Logan, edits and sells popular movies, frequently to elementary schools and high schools where R-rated movies wouldn't be tolerated.

The company operates under the "fair-use" premise, a section of U.S. copyright law that allows parts of copyrighted works to be used legally for nonprofit or educational purposes.

"We are currently in the process of trying to communicate with the Directors Guild (of America) to see what our options are," Wade Olsen, owner of Flick's Club in Logan, wrote in a statement to the Deseret Morning News. "We have no intention of breaking any law, and if it becomes necessary for us to close our doors, we will do so. We love movies and only want to be able to offer them to a wider audience."

But an attorney for Clean Flicks of Colorado, LLC., a company named in the lawsuit that prompted Matsch's ruling, said he doesn't see the "educational purposes" argument getting Flick's Club and Flix Club too far.