Courthouse News Service reports on a lawsuit by 10 major movie studios against a Queen Creek man who edits films to remove “objectionable” scenes and dialogue and sells them.
(John) Webster charges customers “$7.50 for each DVD-R copy of an altered movie (with a minimum order requirement of 10 DVD-Rs), without the authorization of the studios and in violation of the Copyright Act,” according to the federal complaint.
Plaintiffs include Paramount, MGM, Disney, Warner Bros., Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, Sony and Universal. In addition to not having authorization, according to the complaint, one of their big concerns is that Family Edited DVDs Inc.’s products don’t include the copyright protection measures you’d find on retail discs.
Because those have proved so hard to get around.
The studios are seeking to halt Webster’s business and want reimbursed for their legal costs and copyright damages.
