[mythtv-users] (Almost) A small victory for consumers in the US

[Greg Depasse]

As reported in engadget (http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000683034752/):

     "The Hollywood studios don't much like it at all, but Congress is
finally going to bat for the right of consumers to enjoy movies they
way they want to. It just happens to be in protection of censorware
programs like ClearPlay that automatically edit out anything that
could conceivably make a movie family unfriendly. Anyway, to protect
your right to remove the topless scene from Titanic, the House is
about to pass the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, a
bill which the Senate already approved last month and is expected to
easily score a presidential signature. The bill would make it
explicitly clear that it is not a violation of copyright law to alter
somebody's work without permission, as long as it's for private use
only and these altered copies of the work are not redistributed in
anyway. We actually sort of agree with this one—people should be
allowed to do what they want with the DVDs they buy (just like it's
perfectly legal for someone to black out all the naughty parts of
books)—but hopefully just to piss off Congress someone'll figure out a
way to add a little extra sex, violence, and profanity to movies."

I would think that this would be welcome legislation to us especially
in the area of comm'l skip.  I just wonder if it applies.


-Greg