Filtering Company Answers Hollywood's Suit

American filmmakers are objecting to a variety of new companies whohave created viable businesses editing out objectionable language andcontent from movies. The Motion Picture Association of America and TheDirectors Guild of America, on behalf of sixteen members includingSteven Spielberg, Robert Altman, Sydney Pollack, Robert Redford, andMartin Scorsese, has filed a lawsuit to stop the practice.

On the other side of the issue are parents and companies who feelthat most movies are better for family viewing without theobjectionable language and material. "Many parents want to watch movieswith their families without being exposed to obscenity, nudity andviolence," said Rick Bray, President of Principle Solutions and theinventor of TVGuardian, the Foul Language Filter that mutes outoffensive words and phrases in broadcast, cable and satellitetelevision, plus video and DVD movies. The technology is also availableas a built-in feature (TVG) in Sanyo and Fisher video and DVD players."I was sick and tired of bringing home movies for my family to watchand being embarrassed."

"We strongly support the directors' and studios' right to protecttheir copyrighted material," continued Bray. "Although PrincipleSolutions and TVGuardian are not parties in the suit, other companieswith similar technologies, such as ClearPlay, are named and shouldn'tbe. They don't infringe on the filmmakers copyrights. Both theTVGuardian and ClearPlay technologies simply automate the process ofskipping objectionable material and muting foul language. The consumermust purchase or rent the original movies. Then they can choose towatch the movie cleaned up a little, or they can turn off ourtechnology and watch the movie in its original form."

"Hollywood certainly has the right to create movies as they see fit,even the right to include things many families find objectionable, butwe believe that parents have the right–-in fact theobligation--to control what their children watch."

"It's hard to understand why Hollywood is so concerned about ourefforts to protect our children from the foul language and material intheir movies. They are missing two important facts," added Bray. "Firstof all, we aren't removing the foul language and material, theiraudience is! And secondly, our technology is really helping the movieindustry sell and rent more movies because families now can watch moremovies at home without worrying about what they might be exposed to.Hollywood should be sending us a thank you note every time someone buysone of our products."