Filter cleans up films — legally

OREM — Rhett Butler from "Gone With the Wind" may be a famous Hollywood figure, but if he were to drop the "D-bomb" in some houses, it still might mean a good mouth cleaning with strong soap.

Even the word "thong" from "Shrek 2" is not something that ClearPlay.com sales and marketing director Pete Maughan wants his young children hearing.

"I thought it was funny," he said, "but do I want my 7-year-old hearing that? I wish I hadn't laughed about some things. That's why I hate some of the PG-13, crass movies; I laugh at humor I wish I hadn't."

So to avoid those potentially awkward moments, ClearPlay.com has created a new advertising campaign to highlight its special DVD player and downloadable filters. By the end of this week, I-15 travelers should notice the very quotable — and very family appropriate — ads.

"ClearPlay is a tool to allow people to choose who is welcome in their home and who is not welcome in their home," Maughan said.

Welcome back, Rhett.

In the past, families wanting squeaky clean movies would rent or buy them from edited movie shops in Utah County.

That option is gone, however, after several companies, including Flix Club in Orem and Provo's Cougar Video, recently shut their doors because of a judge's ruling against the practice of such ventures and the threat of future lawsuits.

A Colorado judge ruled in July 2006 that edited movies cause "irreparable injury to the creative artistic expression in the copyrighted movies" and cannot continue, according to court documents.

ClearPlay.com was initially named in that suit, but after they helped pass the Family Movie Act of 2005, which gave families control to edit what was in their home, ClearPlay could defend itself under that same act and were dropped from the lawsuit.

The difference is that ClearPlay's technology doesn't permanently change the film.

"Families can edit movies for their own viewing," said Pete Maughan. "Nothing comes out of the movie unless the family, the parent, the movie watcher chooses."

It starts with ClearPlay editors who screen every new movie and thousands of ones already on the market, all the way back to the 60s, making notes of every sex scene, violent act, curse word or profane reference to God.

When someone buys a ClearPlay DVD player for about $80 the special filter is downloaded onto their DVD player which then allows them to pick high, medium, low or no filtering when they watch that movie. For $7.95 a month, the family can download the new filters for every newly released movie.