CleanFlicks bounces back, offers online DVD rentals

CleanFlicks Inc., a Utah County-based company that built its reputation by offering "family-friendly" movie rentals, is changing the way it does business, by offering DVDs for rent online.

"These are movies that range from old classics movies to new movies that Hollywood has made that are family-friendly," CleanFlicks' chief executive officer Ray Lines said Wednesday.

A number of independent films are available in the CleanFlicks database, as well.

The company had ceased operations following a court ruling that made it illegal for the retail chain of video rental stores to sell movies with the objectionable content edited out. A judge ruled the company violated intellectual property and copyright laws by editing the movies, a decision that forced the company to shut down operations at its retail stores.

The district court judge wrote in his decision last July last that editing movies to delete objectionable language, sex and violence was an "illegitimate business" that hurts Hollywood studios and directors who own the movie rights.

CleanFlicks, based in Pleasant Grove, was among several companies ordered to stop "producing, manufacturing, creating" and renting edited movies. The businesses also had to turn over their inventory to the movie studios.

CleanFlicks now is resuming operations as an online subscription service, where customers can order movies from the CleanFlicks.com Web site and receive their movies in one or two business days, with no shipping charges. Customers can view their movies at leisure and return them in a prepaid return envelope with no late fees, a business model similar to that of NetFlix. Netflix, based in Los Gatos, Calif., commands 71 percent of the market for DVD-by-mail rentals, according to the company.

Monthly memberships for CleanFlicks range from $9.95 per month up to $29.95.

Lines said all CleanFlicks movies are free of graphic violence and sexual content, nudity and harsh profanity. The movies have ratings of G and PG, and a few have PG-13 ratings.

The Web site also offers a parental-advice section on each available movie.

"We've got a real variety of family-friendly entertainment," Lines said. "Right now, we have more than 1,200 titles, which is more than we had before."

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