Pol aims legislation at pic-snipping debate
Smith plans to hold hearing about issue next week
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Smith (R-Texas), chair of the House Judiciary subcommittee on intellectual property, also plans to hold a hearing about the issue next week. He'd threatened to take the step of introducing a bill at a hearing May 20, asserting parents and Congress were increasingly concerned about objectionable material in movies.
The studios and Directors Guild of America have argued that the sanitized versions misrepresent directors' work by creating new versions of films without their authorization.
Case originated two years ago, when retailer CleanFlicks sued the DGA and 16 leading directors to obtain a ruling that its practice of altering films is legal. The DGA filed a countersuit alleging copyright and trademark infringement, and that action was joined in December 2002 by the studios; software maker ClearPlay filed a countersuit in 2003, alleging the DGA, directors and studios had overstated their rights under copyright laws.
DGA spokesman Morgan Rumpf said, "We believe the hearing is premature and unfortunate, given the ongoing settlement negotiations between the parties."
The studios and DGA clashed with Smith when they decided not to send reps to Capitol Hill to testify at the hearing after discovering that it would focus on ongoing legal negotiations and feature what they perceived as lopsided testimony from three witnesses on the other side of the issue.
"We want to share with the subcommittee our great concern about giving someone the legal ability to alter, in any way they choose, for any purpose, and for profit, the content of a film that we have made, which carries our name, and which is associated with one of us," director Taylor Hackford said in written testimony submitted last month to the panel.
