Censor Services Push Forward

WASHINGTON -- Legislation that would allow people to automatically skip over objectionable content in movies viewed at home sailed through a key House subcommittee on Thursday and looks to be on the fast track.

The House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property passed S167/HR357, known as the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, with little debate. The full Senate passed its identical bill on a voice vote on Feb. 1.

The legislation would essentially affirm the legality of software such as ClearPlay, which automatically edits supposedly objectionable scenes out of popular movie titles. Several DVD players now come ClearPlay-enabled and work with more than 1,000 movie titles.

Some Hollywood directors and studios have complained that such filtering violates their copyright by altering their works without permission. S167/HR357, however, would sanction the practice.

Proponents see the bill as empowering parents to protect children from an onslaught of objectionable movie content.

"Just as the author of a book should not be able to force someone to read that book in any particular manner or order, a studio or director should not be able to force parents or their children to watch a movie in a particular way," said bill sponsor and subcommittee chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas).

Smith said the goal is to get the bill to the White House for signing before the Supreme Court decides the big Grokster case.

In that controversial case, entertainment interests have challenged lower-court decisions ruling that Grokster, Morpheus and other peer-to-peer services cannot be held liable because, like a videocassette recorder, they make copyright violations possible but can be used for legitimate purposes.

Entertainment-industry supporters argue that the services profit from users' desire to get music and movies for free. Thus, P2P services should be held liable so they can be sued for copyright infringement.

The fear among supporters of S167/HR357 is that the final Grokster decision could contain language that alters general copyright law, effectively stalling any pending copyright bills in their tracks.

Regardless of how the court rules, Smith said the subcommittee will likely need to address at least some aspects of copyright law in the wake of the decision, although it's unclear what those issues would be until the court rules.

"I think we may have more things to do after Grokster," he told reporters after the hearing.

Oral arguments in the Grokster case are scheduled for March 29, with the Supreme Court expected to rule this summer.

In addition to its filtering provisions, S167/HR357 would also stiffen penalties for the recording of films in theaters with video cameras. Such camcorder footage often becomes the basis of pirate DVDs sold on the black market.