Clean Flicks store seeks approval for editing videos

By The Associated Press

08.31.02

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DENVER — A video store chain that edits profanity, violence and sex from films has asked a judge to rule the practice legal, despite protests by such directors as Robert Redford and Steven Spielberg.

Clean Flicks of Colorado, a franchise of Utah-based Clean Flicks, filed the lawsuit in federal court after learning from the Directors Guild of America Web site that Sydney Pollack, Robert Altman, Steven Soderbergh and 13 other directors planned to seek an injunction against the practice.

Directors Guild spokesman Andrew Levy said the guild has taken no legal action and that the information should not have been posted on the Web site.

"The lawsuit was an option we were considering, but we never committed to filing one," Levy said on Aug. 29.

The company said the edited tapes are marked with a disclaimer that the film was edited for content, and the number of original versions matches the number of edited versions.

Korey Smitheram, who owns Clean Flicks of Colorado with two others, said the stores would not carry a film if excessive editing were required to meet the stores' criteria.

"There are some movies where we mute one or two words in the whole show. Has the movie been completely damaged and no one will get a feeling of what the director was trying to prove? I don't think so," he said.

Smitheram and his partners own seven stores in Colorado, Idaho and Utah. There are about 70 Clean Flicks stores nationwide.

He said the lawsuit was filed to make sure the Colorado group had a chance to argue its case.

"The directors probably never wanted to take it that far, but we wanted to have our day in court to decide the legality of this," Smitheram said.

Update

Battle intensifies over film-sanitizing software
Video store, filmmakers will face off in federal court this month over software that allows users to edit objectionable content from movies.  02.03.03