|
By Kent Larsen
LDS Businessman Cleans-Up Movies, Makes Slate Sex Column
OREM, UTAH -- LDS Businessman Ray Lines is making an attempt to clean
up movies for Utah County's predominantly Mormon audience. And his
efforts have even been noticed on-line, where the e-zine Slate's sex
column picked up the story. Lines' business, CleanFlicks, edits
movies for its customers and maintains a library of edited movies for
members of its coop.
The business was the subject of a Salt Lake Tribune article on
Monday, January 8th, in which Lines' business operations were
explained. He edits objectionable material out of his client's copies
of movies at the rate of 50 or more a week, and also edits copies of
movies for a library belonging to a coop he runs. Coop members pay a
monthly fee that allows them to check out copies of the edited movies.
Lines' two stores join American Fork's Sunrise Video in the
controversial practice of editing movies for customers. Lines'
lawyer, Jeff Aldous, maintains that the practice is legal.
"[CleanFlicks and Sunrise Video] are purchasing and editing each and
every video individually," he says. "They are not editing one master
video and making a bunch of copies. So the moviemakers are being paid
for each and every movie."
But University of Utah law professor Susan Poulter isn't so sure that
the practice is legal, saying that the editors may be creating a
derivative product, which would violate the copyright law. Poulter
notes that the Hollywood studios have a right to control 'derivative'
products, and notes that the crucial question is whether or not Lines
and Sunrise Video are creating a new product by their editing. While
Hollywood studios have expressed reservations about the practice,
they have so far not taken any action, despite Sunrise Video's
activity for more than a year.
Of course, the edited movies have been mostly a local issue so far.
However, that may change. Yesterday, the online magazine Slate
published an article about CleanFlicks in its Sex column. And that
column says Lines hopes to expand his business nationwide -- to
wherever Mormons live.
Sources:
Clean scenes
Salon 11Jan01 B2
By Jack Boulware
A video watchdog in Utah edits out all the nasty stuff for his Mormon customers.
He Snips the Flicks
Salt Lake Tribune 8Jan01 B2
By Mark Eddington: Salt Lake Tribune
|
