How is this Legal

[Ellman]

I found this site, www.cleanfilms.com. they are renting back-ups of originals with questionalable content removed. I thought that Back-ups were illegal because you have to decript the encoding?

[indolikaa]

Unless they got the copyright holders' permission, I can't see how it would be legal. And they're renting a copy of the original disc! I'm not sure I buy their argument about the 1:1 rule, either.

[Ellman]

They also sell edited copies but they send you an unplayable original.

I say a write up of this place in DVD Ect magazine. I guess if the co-op idea is legal then i can lend my back-up to whom ever i wish as long as a charge them to be in the co-op?

[adam]

I can say with absolute certainty that this is not legal. They are providing a valuable service, no doubt, its just not a legal one.

As indolikaa said they would have to have express permission, aka a separate license to edit any of the movies which they offer on their site, or they would have to purchase the movies from a distributor who had such a license. Judging from their pathetic explanation as to why their service is supposedly legal, I can say without a doubt that they don't have this permission. If they did have the copyright holder's permission than I'm sure they would make a point to say so, since that is the only possible way this could be legal.

This co-operative rental club explanation is garbage. There is no such thing. What they are doing is flat out illegal and they know it. They analogize it to hitting mute on the remote. Editing a movie is reproduction. Renting out and selling this reproduction is distribution. Both of these things are expressly prohibited by the copyright. Hitting mute isn't.

Regarding the edited DVDs which they actually sell, its still illegal. It doesn't matter that they give you the original along with the backup. There is no legal right to backup a DVD in the US or most other countries and even if there were, it would never apply to commercial sales. This doesn't even matter anyway because unless you have express permission to edit the film, you are violating the copyright plain and simple.

[Ellman]

Thats what i thought.

[tgpo]

They've been to court

[indolikaa]

And they fired the first shot in the legal battle. Amazing.

[adam]

Well one is called CleanFlicks and the other CleanFilms. Both websites look similar and the mailing addresses are in the same state. Geesh can this get any shadier?

EDIT: Ahh I see. CleanFlicks has dozens of affiliates like CleanFilms all over the country. So CleanFlicks is the head honcho then. I can't believe this hasn't been shut down sooner. Its funny, if you read some of the affiliate's FAQ's you get a different legal explanation each time.