ClearPlay is a company and technology that basically acts as a “parental control” feature that enables the viewer to filter out objectionable content from a normal DVD movie DVD recording of a television show. The technology in the player device lets the viewer automatically skip over or mute the undesireable content (like graphic violence, profanity, sexual content, and adult situations without altering the original physical medium or DVD recording.
In order to enjoy a ClearPlay streamed DVD movie, you must have a ClearPlay-enabled DVD player and something called ‘filter files’. Filter files are controlled, created, and distributed by Clearplay editors and hold the logic and intelligence about the given movie to know where to edit out the objectionable content based on the time-stamping of the film.
The filter files enable the player to bypass the lewd language or sexual content during playback of the film — all the while the original form of the DVD is not altered.
The filter files code ‘objectionable’ or undesirable content into twelve categories. The user can then decide what it is they want to skip during the viewing of the movie or DVD. The 12 categories can be filtered at 4 intensity levels — graphic, explicit, implied, and none). Nudity, Sex, Violence, Lewd Conduct, Cursing (Language), etc. are some of the categories included.
In addition, for those with young impressionable minds in the family, the player will preview a list of content that some *may* find objectionable or inappropriate for minors at the beginning of the movie, the plot’s situational circumstances, or the scene of the film.
If you have a hearing disabled viewer in the house, and are using closed captioning the text is NOT removed from the movie if the scene is simply muted for objectionable language/content so this is something to watch out for if you have minors fully capable of reading but that you don’t want to be exposed to profane language.
In various situations the users filtering choices will cause entire scenes to be deleted. At times, some editors, coupled with what the user selects as objectionable content and the automated editing can leave movies with choppiness and it can interrupt the user’s viewing experience. Scenes can be completely deleted and in particular films–especially those with adult themes–lines of plot can be lost.
In addition to the special player, if users would like to use ClearPlay they must pay a monthly subscription fee, have a PC connected to the Internet, and get a special USB flash drive called a ‘filter stick’ that they move between an Internet connected PC and the player.
The users download special filter files from the Internet on movies which have been edited by the Clear Play editors.
The viewer then takes the Filterstick and plugs it into the player. Unfortunately, the clearplay business model means that the filter files are only available from Clearplay as a monthly or annual subscribed membership. You can’t buy one, two, or a few filter files for just your favorite movies or as you need them. So even if you don’t watch any movies in a given month that need to be cleaned or edited, you still have to pay the subscription fee. However, the subscription fee does give you access to the full library of those filters which the company has already created for its users.
For users outside the United States where the DVD playback technology is different ClearPlay does not have a viable solution yet.
Legal Issues
Like pretty much every technology or technique that has been developed with the intent on delivering clean edited movies to audiences hungry for family friendly films, ClearPlay was attacked legally by the owners of the movies copyrights.
From the beginning of the technological development of the ClearPlay player, the company was sued by the MPAA for copyright violations. However, through an aggressive lobbying campaign through a conservative Texas legislator the company was able to get the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act passed through the US Congress in 2005. The act says that Americans can legally skip or mute the playback of a DVD in their own home as long as the orignal material is not modified.
As obvious as this sounds — that people can choose to watch what they want to in their own homes — especially if they OWN the material the wording was a coup for the company, as it provided NO protection for those who would wish to rent, copy, sell or create edited DVDs (or more clearly re-edited DVDs), with the content already removed.
ClearPlay was also sued in 2004 for patent infringement by a company called Nissim Corporation.
The company settled the suit by agreeing to pay Nissim a license fee for their Objectionable Content Specifications.
According to Wikipedia: In 2007, Nissim filed a motion to enforce claiming that ClearPlay had not complied with its obligations under the license Agreement and based on that claim sent letters to Target Corp and Best Buy demanding that they stop selling ClearPlay DVD players.
Clearplay’s recurring revenue business model appears strong as the US courts and Congress have left consumers out in the cold, and allowed Clearplay a virtual legal monopoly in the marketplace for providing clean edited movie viewing in your home. While sellers of edited DVDs keep appearing to satiate demand, the company seems to have the full might of the US government, and Hollywood’s lawyers working on its behalf to squash small players as they appear.
If you would like to support the rights or conscientious American viewers to have a choice for how they view and consume movies that they OWN in their own homes, please sign our petition.
Clearplay
ClearPlay is a company and technology that basically acts as a “parental control” feature that enables the viewer to filter out objectionable content from a normal DVD movie DVD recording of a television show. The technology in the player device lets the viewer automatically skip over or mute the undesireable content (like graphic violence, profanity, sexual content, and adult situations without altering the original physical medium or DVD recording.
In order to enjoy a ClearPlay streamed DVD movie, you must have a ClearPlay-enabled DVD player and something called ‘filter files’. Filter files are controlled, created, and distributed by Clearplay editors and hold the logic and intelligence about the given movie to know where to edit out the objectionable content based on the time-stamping of the film.
The filter files enable the player to bypass the lewd language or sexual content during playback of the film — all the while the original form of the DVD is not altered.
The filter files code ‘objectionable’ or undesirable content into twelve categories. The user can then decide what it is they want to skip during the viewing of the movie or DVD. The 12 categories can be filtered at 4 intensity levels — graphic, explicit, implied, and none). Nudity, Sex, Violence, Lewd Conduct, Cursing (Language), etc. are some of the categories included.
In addition, for those with young impressionable minds in the family, the player will preview a list of content that some *may* find objectionable or inappropriate for minors at the beginning of the movie, the plot’s situational circumstances, or the scene of the film.
If you have a hearing disabled viewer in the house, and are using closed captioning the text is NOT removed from the movie if the scene is simply muted for objectionable language/content so this is something to watch out for if you have minors fully capable of reading but that you don’t want to be exposed to profane language.
In various situations the users filtering choices will cause entire scenes to be deleted. At times, some editors, coupled with what the user selects as objectionable content and the automated editing can leave movies with choppiness and it can interrupt the user’s viewing experience. Scenes can be completely deleted and in particular films–especially those with adult themes–lines of plot can be lost.
In addition to the special player, if users would like to use ClearPlay they must pay a monthly subscription fee, have a PC connected to the Internet, and get a special USB flash drive called a ‘filter stick’ that they move between an Internet connected PC and the player.
The users download special filter files from the Internet on movies which have been edited by the Clear Play editors.
The viewer then takes the Filterstick and plugs it into the player. Unfortunately, the clearplay business model means that the filter files are only available from Clearplay as a monthly or annual subscribed membership. You can’t buy one, two, or a few filter files for just your favorite movies or as you need them. So even if you don’t watch any movies in a given month that need to be cleaned or edited, you still have to pay the subscription fee. However, the subscription fee does give you access to the full library of those filters which the company has already created for its users.
For users outside the United States where the DVD playback technology is different ClearPlay does not have a viable solution yet.
Legal Issues
Like pretty much every technology or technique that has been developed with the intent on delivering clean edited movies to audiences hungry for family friendly films, ClearPlay was attacked legally by the owners of the movies copyrights.
From the beginning of the technological development of the ClearPlay player, the company was sued by the MPAA for copyright violations. However, through an aggressive lobbying campaign through a conservative Texas legislator the company was able to get the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act passed through the US Congress in 2005. The act says that Americans can legally skip or mute the playback of a DVD in their own home as long as the orignal material is not modified.
As obvious as this sounds — that people can choose to watch what they want to in their own homes — especially if they OWN the material the wording was a coup for the company, as it provided NO protection for those who would wish to rent, copy, sell or create edited DVDs (or more clearly re-edited DVDs), with the content already removed.
ClearPlay was also sued in 2004 for patent infringement by a company called Nissim Corporation.
The company settled the suit by agreeing to pay Nissim a license fee for their Objectionable Content Specifications.
According to Wikipedia: In 2007, Nissim filed a motion to enforce claiming that ClearPlay had not complied with its obligations under the license Agreement and based on that claim sent letters to Target Corp and Best Buy demanding that they stop selling ClearPlay DVD players.
Clearplay’s recurring revenue business model appears strong as the US courts and Congress have left consumers out in the cold, and allowed Clearplay a virtual legal monopoly in the marketplace for providing clean edited movie viewing in your home. While sellers of edited DVDs keep appearing to satiate demand, the company seems to have the full might of the US government, and Hollywood’s lawyers working on its behalf to squash small players as they appear.
If you would like to support the rights or conscientious American viewers to have a choice for how they view and consume movies that they OWN in their own homes, please sign our petition.