ClearPlay censoring system that blocks rude bits in DVDs to launch in UK

 

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Posted on 26 Mar 2010 at 10:24

The controversial ClearPlay DVD censoring system is set to launch in the UK later this year. Using downloaded filters it automatically skips past any swearing, violence and rude bits.

Already available in the US, ClearPlay requires a special DVD player than can download filters and a monthly membership of $7.99 (around £5.30). Filters for specific films are downloaded to the player and contain time codes for when scenes should be skipped or swear words removed.

It has not gone down well with US movies studios, and the Directors Guild of America even took the company to court citing a breach of copyright. However, the case was thrown out as ClearPlay doesn't make fixed changes to the source material.

Skip Riddle (an appropriate name if ever there was one) from ClearPlay has strongly defended the actions of company, claiming it gives parents more control over what their kids watch.

"We're not in the censoring business. We are not altering their film at all," he told the BBC. "All we are doing is allowing viewers to balance the artistic integrity and rights of the author to the rights of the individual viewer.

List of filters

To aid parents ClearPlay has a searchable filter database. What's surprising is the sheer number of R-rated films listed, as these are designed to be watched by adults only.

It's even stranger, then, that the accompanying info sometimes says that a film's not appropriate for children - so why even bother filtering in the first place? For example, District 9 (an amazing film) is, "Certainly not a show for the kiddos".

For each filter there's also a list of the type of content that the film contains and what's filtered out. These follow the odd descriptions on the back of DVDs and include the following gems: "Intense Life/Death Situations" and "Some Suggestive Dancing".

No film's free of the filtering system and even Disney's The Princess and the Frog is filtered for a few "minor anatomical and sensual references and a scary couple of seconds of a voodoo ritual". Other filters don't make sense to us.

For example, Did You Hear About the Morgans? has "20 or so instances of language" - good or bad, it doesn't say - as well as "some frank dialogue and implied scenes of intimacy between a married couple".

Surely, in this film's case, the best thing to do would be to just skip past the entire film, saving anyone from have to watch Hugh Grant, who calls-in another bumbling British-man abroad, and Sarah Jessica parker, who apparently looks like a horse.

Reviews

Some movies also carry reviews of the films, but they'll probably make you angry. According to ClearPlay, about Did You Hear About the Morgans?: "If you don't demand too much from your romantic comedies, Morgans is polite and familiar entertainment for most members of the family."

On the IMDB, the same film gets a better review: "When this ended, I thought to myself 'Why has this been made at all?'". The film scores 3.8 out of 10.

With District 9, ClearPlay gives it faint praise: "While the film would have been more effective for me if they had toned down the language and gore, it’s still worth checking out if you’re looking for sci-fi flick a little off the beaten path."