I'm surprised Clean Flicks has been able to survive as long as it has.
I've worked in business affairs in the film industry for 15 years. Movie
companies have to buy (or license) the movie AND ancillary rights from
copyright holders. Before a film is produced, companies run copyright
reports to be sure the entity or person selling them the rights to make a
movie has the right to do so. The rights to actually shoot a movie are then
transferred over to the production company, which has the right to make the
movie, but does not own it. The ownership rights of the movie and the
ancillary rights remain with the entity that purchased them.
Distributors, in turn, then license the right to distribute films in various
markets. Distributors require complete chain-of-title documentation along
with proof of errors and omissions insurance to cover any inadvertent
copyright infringement.
Ancillary rights include the rights to distribute films in foreign
countries, television, cable, airlines, etc., as well as marketing rights.
It is a major revenue stream for them. Sanitized versions of films are
edited by film companies (or their distributors) to meet various censorship
requirements for these markets. It is not uncommon for a film company to
license different ancillary rights to different distributors - one
distributor for domestic distribution, another for foreign, etc.
In addition, film companies are required as signatories to union bargaining
agreements (the Writers Guild, the Screen Actors Guild, the Directors Guild,
etc.) to pay residuals based on formulas that take in account revenues from
these markets.
Also, some talent is entitled to proceeds from the gross and net profits of
the films. So, not only did Clean Flicks infringe upon the marketing rights
of film companies and distributors, I suspect Clean Flicks was not paying
any of THESE fees, therefore impacting the revenue source for talent as
well.
Hope this helps put this in perspective.
Rhonda Super
MLIS Candidate
San Jose State Unversity
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-----Original Message-----
From: Archives & Archivists [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Peter Kurilecz
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 10:35 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Clean Flicks copyright case
On 7/17/06, James Stimpert <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>
> I'm curious as to how this practice differs from Walmart's practice of
> selling "sanitized" versions of CDs and DVDs.
WalMart can go to its suppliers and say "based upon the data we have
we would like for you to produce a version that meets these
demographics" They do this with any product not just CDs/DVDs. Because
they have so much buying strength/power the suppliers will go along
with the request. Nothing wrong with it as it has been done for years.
in a former life I worked for a very large oil company out of the
Middle East. The company supplied TVs and Movies for the expat
population in camp, but all the movies and TV shows had to have
certain portions edited out such as kissing. The producers of the
shows had no problem with doing that. Now if the folks in Utah had
gone to the copyright holders and said "look we x thousands of folks
who would like to purchase your product but we won't because of x, y,
z, could you produce a sanitized version?" I suspect they might have
looked on it more favorably, but then again maybe not.
peterk
--
Peter Kurilecz CRM CA
Richmond, Va
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