By voice vote, the House has approved The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, according to a Cox News Service report.
The legislation now goes to the President for signature. It contains numerous provisions, but among the most controversial is one that exempts companies from claims of copyright infringement for using technology that edits without permanently altering an original movie.
Representative Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), the main sponsor of the bill, had wanted to legitimize the “sanitizing” technology in use by ClearPlay, a Utah company that creates movie-specific filters that can be plugged into a specially equipped DVD player. The filters let viewers edit three types of violence, five levels of sex and six types of profanity, said Bill Aho, ClearPlay’s chief executive.
The bill does not address the editing form of censorship used by CleanFlicks Media and other companies that distribute edited versions of movies. Hollywood companies had sued both ClearPlay and CleanFlicks for copyright infringement. The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act will make the former moot but leave the latter embroiled in litigation.
In addition to the ClearPlay provisions, the act also strengthens anti-piracy laws, establishing prison terms for selling pirated materials, according to the report. It makes it a federal offense to create bootleg films by using recorders in theaters and gives theaters the right to detain suspects for questioning until police arrive.
