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

[Andrew Close]

On 3/7/05, Greg Depasse <greg.depasse at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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.

i heard on NPR this morning that the Family Movie/Entertainment Act
'did' pass and that Clearplay is now legally allowed to sell their
products.  it sounds like Congress does get things right once in a
while. ;)