EDITED FILM STORES IN UTAH COUNTY CLOSING

BY SARA ISRAELSEN-HARTLEY / Dec 5, 2007
The Deseret Morning News

OREM — Clinton Uytenbogaardt and his fiancee, Celeste Wright, scanned the shelves, pulling off an edited copy of the epic depiction "300" to add to the "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," already in hand. "Is it edited?" Wright's 10-year-old son, David, asked about the pirate movie, and his mom nodded. "Ye
s!" he cheered, and pumped his fist in the air. "He didn't get to see the second one, because it wasn't edited," Wright said. "So for him, this is great."

Tuesday's holiday party, with a gift of the newly released third "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie, at Flix Club on 908 S. State in Orem, turned into a teary goodbye as customers learned the family-friendly store was closing. "I'm sorry I can't fight this battle," owner Daniel Thompson said, becoming emotional as he addressed the crowd that gathered in his store. "I can't. I've tried."

Thompson explained that about two weeks ago, he got a letter from an attorney in New York who represents Warner Brothers, Sony, Disney, Twentieth Century Fox and Paramount movie studios, telling him his edited movie rental and sales business was breaking copyright law and he had to close. "This is my life," Thompson said of Flix Club. "I've worked 6 1/2 years for this." Thompson then asked the attorney about legitimate ways to keep operating. What about selling the real movie but giving customers an edited copy as a free gift? What about having an unedited back-up copy for every edited movie rented? And what would happen if Flix Club just stayed open? "'If you stay open, we will break you,'" Thompson said, quoting the attorney. "'We will go after you for everything you have.'"

"I don't want to be broken," he said. "I've never been scared until recently." The edited-movie battle began in 1998 when an American Fork movie theater cut out steamy topless scenes of Kate Winslet from the film "Titanic." Paramount Pictures reprimanded the theater, then yanked the film. Businesses sprang up and a series of lawsuits followed, ending with a federal judge's decision in July 2006 that editing businesses were breaching copyright laws and had to stop.

But the lawsuit didn't name Cougar Video or Flix Club, who tried to sneak by without detection or slide through on an educational loophole, in which 80 percent of edited sales must be education based.

"We felt like no news was good news," said Kirt Merrill, who has owned Cougar Video for 15 years. "(We decided) to fly under the radar until some dude in a dark suit walks into my store and hands me paperwork. It was all great until September when some guy (walked) into the store ..."

... And handed him a threatening letter.

"We don't want to get wrapped up in a lawsuit," said Merrill, who also attended the closing announcement at Flix Club, then made the same announcement at his store later Tuesday evening. "(A lawsuit) would cost us far more money than closing the store. They would just toast us. We just cannot really afford to fight the thing anymore."

"I've never rented from anywhere else," said Devin Sims of Lindon, who came with three of his five children to get the Pirates present. "There are plenty of movie stores from our house to here. But it's worth driving down here. You know you can take (a movie) home and have a good, wholesome family film."

Both Flix Club and Cougar Video, along with Family Video Book and Clothing on the Alpine/Highland border and several other Utah County companies, will be gone by Dec. 31. "So what's been around for 15 years is going away because of this ruling and lawsuit," Merrill said. "They've destroyed the store, and there's nothing I can do to solve it. They've crushed us."

THREE LOCAL MOVIE STORES FORCED TO CLOSE THIS MONTH

BY MALLORY BATEMAN / Dec 5, 2007
Brigham Young University's Daily Universe

As Flix Club owner Daniel Thompson treated eager customers to a free copy of "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," the gift was accompanied by news that the store would not survive to see the new year.

The owner greeted customers by name as they filed in to the small store on State Street in Orem Tuesday night. The media had already gathered to hear what few people knew - Hollywood had finally won the battle against edited movie stores and was closing them down.

Flix Club, along with Cougar Video and Family Video, once competitors, were all serviced papers in September from law firm Loeb and Loeb in New York stating the stores needed to shut down. "I wrote them back saying I was operating under educational use," an exception in copyright law, Thompson said. "They responded by giving me three options."

The firm told Thompson that his loophole to copyright law would not hold up and he could negotiate with each individual studio, close down, or continue to operate and face a lawsuit, he said. "I called the firm and said I don't want to fight," Thompson said. "They said that if I don't shut down they would break me and take everything I have." So he decided to quit.

Flix Club has been in business for seven years, but Thompson said he couldn't fight the battle anymore, especially against companies like Disney, MGM and Dreamworks. "How many people know me?" Thompson said.

The crowd responded with cheers as nearly everyone raised their hands. "I've looked into every possibility," Thompson said. "They're wiping us out."

In an emotional speech, Thompson thanked customers for their business and asked for their support until he turns his sign off for good on Dec. 31. "You know me; you know that I'm here." Thompson said. "You mean everything to me."Customers thanked Thompson for his business and pledged their support as they gave their regards.

Orem resident Dana Johnson said Thompson knows every customer by name and said he thinks Hollywood is making a mistake "I think it's awful," Johnson said. "They're giving up money for something stupid."

BYU student David Ybarra said he and his wife Emily have rented from Thompson since high school and prefer Flix Club to any other video store. "I won't watch a movie if it's not edited," Emily Ybarra said. "It makes it so you don't have to brace yourself during the movie."

Cougar Video owner Kirt Merrill said he would be closing, too, even though 90 percent of his movies are not edited. However, he said, 85 percent of his income comes from renting the edited movies.

Family Video owner Ryan Van Dorn said he survived the first wave, which closed down Clean Flicks, but his edited movies won't survive this time. He said he will continue to rent movies rated PG-13 or lower. "This will be the final nail in the coffin," Van Dorn said.

LEGAL LOOPHOLE BRINGS BACK EDITED MOVIES

BY BARBARA DAVIS / April 9, 2007
Brigham Young University's Daily Universe

Utah County said goodbye to edited-movie vendors last summer, but local movie businesses have brought edited movies back by finding a creative way to justify their actions. Flix Club and Cougar Video are renting and selling edited movies, an action outlawed last July in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. The judge ruled that movie-editing businesses and vendors create injury to creative expression and should shut their doors and call off operations.

So how are these stores getting around this? The ruling that forced movie-editing companies out of business has a legal loophole. Daniel Thompson, owner of Flix Club, 908 S. State, Orem, said movie-editing stores are continuing to operate based on two criteria.

He said under the fair-use premise, editing is permitted if it is for an educational purpose. The second is that these businesses are not actually named in the lawsuit so they are not banned.

Flix Club edits videos such as "Glory" and "The Patriot" for local schools, said Thompson, former owner of the retail locations for Clean Flicks. But he also edits movies that may not be easily identified as educational and some wonder what is educational about "The Matrix."

Some businesses learned of this loophole and began operation a few months after the ruling. Scott J. Mikulecky, member of the Litigation Department of Sherman & Howard's Colorado Springs office and attorney for CleanFlicks of Colorado in the lawsuit that provoked the ruling, said he does not know the details of operations but is skeptical. "There is a valid educational exception," Mikulecky said. "The question is if [certain movies] qualify. I don't see how [some] movies can be made educational."

According to the Motion Picture Association of America Web site, the association is committed to promoting copyright protection and other intellectual property protection. This is so those who create movies, software, music or other works can make a living by creating products that enrich lives. It implements programs to help secure the original product and reduce editing. The Daily Universe attempted to contact a spokesman for the Motion Picture Association but did not have phone calls returned.

Dan Pia, UVSC student from Pasadena, Calif., said he believes movies are a creative effort of many people to produce art, and he is not buying the educational claim. "I think it is ridiculous to allow them [editing companies] to do this," Pia said. He said editing movies is both dishonest and hypocritical. "They are taking advantage of the legal loophole," he said. "And people are hypocritical because they are watching movies they wouldn't choose to watch without the edited parts."

But many families in the area want edited movies and support movie-editing companies. There is a need for edited movies in this area where family values are important, Thompson said. "They [studios] may not realize there is a market here for edited movies," he said. "It is not R-rated movies necessarily that need to be edited; it is about family values in general. The support people here have for edited movies is amazing."

Thompson added that if someone owns a copy of a movie, then the individual should be able to do anything to it. "What if you took 'God's Army' and added profanity to it?" he said. "My response is, do with it what you want. The principle of editing goes both ways."