Richard Miller response: the CleanFlicks conundrum

Richard Miller commented on my post “the CleanFlicks conundrum” and since I wrote about him, I wanted to give his response more prominence on my blog. I did make comments in italics.

Here it is:
“I agree that we shouldn’t (and can’t) force Hollywood to provide edited movies, but I don’t believe anyone was advocating force. The question “Why doesn’t Hollywood just edit the movies themselves?” still stands. There appears to be a market for it. Maybe Hollywood won’t realize that market exists until filthy movies are boycotted (as you seem to be suggesting.)

What I’m suggesting is that the market opportunity for them is to create filth not provide edited movies

I do feel, however, that Hollywood constantly pushes the envelope of what is appropriate and wholesome, and we’re the worse off for it. It’s also a statement on our own desensitization if we continue to patronize it.

That’s why at the end I mentioned that I thought buying or renting edited movies was patronizing Hollywood’s content because it supports the original work. Hence, I realized I wanted to cancel my membership to CleanFlicks

When quoting my line “to say this is violation of copyright is to side with all the large media companies”, it’s important that you not leave out the rest of the sentence: “that use DRM and the DMCA….” I don’t believe large companies are inherently bad, but I do believe DRM infringes (necessarily) on the fair use of media we buy. Having said that, there’s probably no easy way around it while still protecting creators’ rights.

By the way, my bringing up the DMCA was only incidental. This ruling, as far as I understand, was not based on the DMCA, though it probably could have been. In any case, the DMCA is widely regarded as an affront to fair use.

The idea that this is a case of Hollywood pursuing liberty and happiness reminds me of Isaiah 29:8. I think they’ll find themselves empty.

I don’t agree with all that Hollywood does, but right to property is the right to the pursuit of happiness, and Hollywood is exercising it’s right to the pursuit of happiness by protecting its property. Does this mean the same kind of happiness as described in the scriptures? Not likely. But keep in mind that this very right is the same right that allows the LDS Church to keep the right to be the sole publisher of the Book of Mormon.

Thanks Richard for your comment. So let’s think on Richard’s question here: “Why doesn’t Hollywood just edit the movies themselves?”

Update I just spent two hours with my attorney friend, and I asked him about some of theses issues. His comments really opened this issue up for me even more. I’ll see if I can get him to write his thoughts for my blog.