• Associated Press via Calgary Sun, Monday, July 10, 2006 10:31 AM

"Sanitizing" movies on DVD or VHS tape violates federal copyright laws, and companies that scrub films must turn over their inventory to Hollywood studios, reports the Associated Press. Editing movies to delete objectionable language, sex and violence is an "illegitimate business" that hurts studios and directors who own the movie rights, says U.S District Judge Richard Matsch. The studios and directors' "objective... is to stop the infringement because of its irreparable injury to the creative artistic expression in the copyrighted movies," the judge writes. "There is a public interest in providing such protection." Matsch also ordered the companies named in the suit, including CleanFlicks, Play It Clean Video and CleanFilms, to stop "producing, manufacturing, creating" and renting edited movies. The businesses also must turn over their inventory to the movie studios within five days. The controversy began in 1998 when the owners of a video outlet began deleting scenes from "Titanic" that showed a naked Kate Winslet.

Read the whole story at Associated Press via Calgary Sun »