DVD SMUT FILTER OK' NEW LAW WILL LEGALIZE SOFTWARE.

Byline: Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Parents will be free to edit objectionable material from Hollywood films under legislation the House passed Tuesday to protect a Utah movie-filtering company.

The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, which President George W. Bush is expected to sign, effectively ends a lawsuit the Directors Guild of America brought against ClearPlay Inc.

The Salt Lake City-based company markets a filtering technique that works with DVD players to automatically skip or mute violence, nudity or anything else a viewer might find objectionable in a commercial film.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who sponsored the bill, likened it to the right to use a remote control to mute or fast-forward objectionable material.

``It lets parents decide for themselves what their children see and hear on television,'' Smith said. ``Raising children is the toughest job in the world. Parents need all the help they can get.''

Earlier this month, the Senate approved an identical version of the bill, sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

Rep. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys, said the technology ``inappropriately intervenes'' with a director's artistic control of a film, and Rep. Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles, denounced it as an ``infringement'' of a director's creative vision.

``There's no one who thinks parents do not have and should not have the right to skip over scenes they feel are inappropriate for their children to see,'' Berman said. ``Parents should have all these rights including, by the way, the right to just say 'no' to their child watching a movie.''

Despite their objections, however, Los Angeles-area lawmakers voted for the measure, which passed unanimously in a voice vote. The Motion Picture Association of America supported it because it also cracks down on movie piracy and helps preserve historic films.

``It's mostly good,'' said John Feehery, an MPAA spokesman. Giving legal protection to movie sanitizers, he said, ``causes some heartburn, but the good outweighs the bad.''

The legislation makes camcording in movie theaters a federal crime, punishable by up to three years in prison. It also toughens penalties for hackers and others who distribute music, movies or other copyrighted works before their official release date.

The MPAA estimates 90 percent of pirated films are obtained by illegal camcording. The industry believes it loses $3.5 billion annually in global sales due to piracy.

``By making this kind of action a federal crime, Congress today has struck a blow for the rule of law and justice,'' MPAA President Dan Glickman said in a statement.

Reauthorizing the National Film Preservation Board is an issue Berman has long pushed for. The group issues grants to libraries, universities and other institutions to save old silent films, historic newsreels and other works from degradation. The bill does not promise any money but keeps the program in existence another four years.

The Directors Guild of America issued a statement saying it would ``continue in its efforts to vigorously defend the right of directors to protect their work from unauthorized alteration.''

The organization also is suing other companies that use different filtering technology, and the bill does not affect those suits.

Lisa Friedman, [phone]

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com