Citing customer demand, two retailers are coming to the rescue with a DVD player manufactured by RCA and Thomson that has adjustable content removal. The device will use a contraversial program that will allow skipping of sexual content, graphically violent scenes and language deemed offensive. Of course, the movie industry is against it.
| RCA plans to start shipping the DVD player in the next few weeks. It is scheduled to be on shelves at Wal-Mart and Kmart in the next two months at a suggested price of 79 dollars, said Dave Arland, Thomson's vice president of U.S. corporate communications and government relations. Wal-Mart's version will be black while Kmart's will be silver. Both Thomson and filtering program developer ClearPlay Inc. say the time is ripe for such a DVD player. "I think the American public is concerned and is looking for a solution, '' said Bill Aho, chief executive officer of ClearPlay Inc., the Salt Lake City firm that is one of several companies battling a lawsuit filed by the biggest movie studios and major directors like Steven Soderbergh, John Landis and Steven Spielberg. The suit claims that filtering technology such as ClearPlay's produces an unauthorized and illegal version of their artistic work. "It's against the First Amendment to stop the media from providing content that's edgier and edgier. It's up to technology,'' Aho said during a recent stop in San Francisco. But the Directors Guild of America disagreed. "In the guise of making films 'family-friendly,' ClearPlay seeks to make whatever 'edits' they see fit to any material they don't like," the group said in a prepared statement. "By not seeking the consent of the director, whose name on the movie reflects the fact that the film comprises his or her work, or of the studio as copyright holder, they can and do change the very meaning and intent of films." |
The ClearPlay system will use programmed commands custom created for about 500 individual movies released on DVD. Not all movies are available and if ClearPlay thinks it ruins the film, there won't be. With this system, the DVD player can be commanded when to mute dialog or skip segments that show 14 levels of violence, sex, nudity and profanity. The user can pick which filters to activate.
Will the public go for such a player? We are going to find out soon. My guess is, there are many parents out there that are ready for a product like this.
Source: SFGate
