Nanny state, now out on DVD.

[mhendo]

@Miller

I am stunned - stunned - to read that California is not one of the 32 states that have signed onto this idiocy. I was pretty sure we’d be spearheading something like this, but blessedly, we don’t seem to be involved at all. How refreshing.

Is it possible that this is a “Don’t bite the hand…” type of policy? After all, the major players in the movie industry are still, for the most part, closely connected with California.

[Sunspace]

@Gangster Octopus

They may not have signed on, but if the studios do this then it will surely affect the DVDs you rent/buy in California.

And Canada too.

If this thing takes off in the States, we’ll probably see it too. Damn. And it won’t work. Even I, as staunch an antismoker as there is, can see that.

I’m sick of the fact that Canada is the only foreign country that is considered part of the US domestic market for motion-picture distribution, so we get all the FBI warnings and other crap, and can’t develop our own distrivution policies. If our government hadn’t been such a bunch of brown-nosing toadies at the time the NAFTA agteement was signed (Mulroney, I’m looking at you!), we’d have more say over this kind of stuff.

And I know how to author DVDs too, so I know exactly how to disable “user operations” (i.e. the fast-forward key. for example) on a given video segment. But I don’t do that unless it’s an art disc and I’m feeling particularly evil.

[mhendo]

@John Mace

*I’d like a DVD please.

Smoking or non-smoking?*

Now at least that would be funny.

[silenus]

@Miller

Can you imagine a seventeen year old wanting to rent Casablanca?

I don’t know about that. Student Council asked to borrow my copy of Casablanca for background ambiance at this year’s Homecoming, and I still haven’t gotten it back. Seems everybody who actually caught a little bit of the movie while waiting for their date to get back from the bathroom wants to see the whole thing.

[ENugent]

@HPL

I’m not a smoker either but it’s shit like this which is why I have very little sympathy for the anti-smoking organizations and such.

What’s really creepy is that Arthur C. CLarke once wrote a book called “Ghost from the Grand banks”. It turned that in the future, smoking was so looked down upon that they were going back and editing the smoking out of old movies. There’s one scene where they were discussing how difficult it would be to edit all the smoking out of Casablanca.

It really doesn’t seem sci-fi anymore.

Also check out Remake, by Connie Willis.

[Talon_Karrde]

Now I’m starting to see what people mean when they say that all of this bullshit makes them want to take up smoking. I feel like buying some cigs now.

[lizardling]

@HPL

I’m not a smoker either but it’s shit like this which is why I have very little sympathy for the anti-smoking organizations and such.

What’s really creepy is that Arthur C. CLarke once wrote a book called “Ghost from the Grand banks”. It turned that in the future, smoking was so looked down upon that they were going back and editing the smoking out of old movies. There’s one scene where they were discussing how difficult it would be to edit all the smoking out of Casablanca.

It really doesn’t seem sci-fi anymore.

I thought there was already either an Xtian org that sold censored DVDs and/or one of the really big superstore chains (I want to say Wal-Mart, but I could be wrong).

[whiterabbit]

@mhendo

Let me get on the record as saying that i’m not a smoker. I think it’s a gross and disgusting habit, and, if asked, i would discourage anyone from taking it up. But that still doesn’t mean that i want to ban it, and nor do i think that we need to be harangued by an anti-smoking tirade every time we turn on the DVD player.

My only request of smokers is they not do it in my immediate viscinity. I don’t want to smell all smoky. Otherwise…well, I wish you wouldn’t, but I’m not gonna nag you about it.

This is a very very bad idea.

[Mighty_Girl]

@Sunspace

And Canada too.

If this thing takes off in the States, we’ll probably see it too. Damn. And it won’t work. Even I, as staunch an antismoker as there is, can see that.

But you are not alone. We also have to sit through lenghty warnings about how the Feds are gonna come knocking at my door… yeah like they have jurisdiction. If they have threatened me with the Marines I’d be scared, but the feds? Feh!

[OtakuLoki]

What a stupid idea. Hell’s bells, I’ve seen bootlegged tapes that KEEP the effing FBI warning in - I imagine this will be just as effective as that. Or the warning for safe sex in front of pornos.

[Ferret_Herder]

@Miller

It seems like children’s videos are the worst about this. I guess the assumption is that the parents don’t really care what the kids are watching, so long as its not adult content, and the kids are too young to complain.

I’ve run into a decent amount of rentals that do this as well - possibly put there by the rental company to “encourage” you to get more movies.

Next we’ll have safer sex (or abstinence, depending on the prevailing views of the AGs demanding this addition) promos before films with sex in them, antidrug messages before films with drug use, and who knows what else.

[Miller]

@Gangster Octopus

They may not have signed on, but if the studios do this then it will surely affect the DVDs you rent/buy in California.

Well, yeah, but at least my taxes aren’t going into the paychecks of the assholes who put it there.

[Mangetout]

@rjung

IIRC, the Shrek 2 DVD had “coming attractions” that couldn’t be skipped. I’ve got to super-fast-forward through Shark Tale, Madagascar, etc. every time I pop that into the DVD player.

I can confirm this; skip and menu just brought up the little ‘no way’ icon; I have to fast-forward through the trailers and logos, which is bad because they’re broken into four or five objects - so you fast-forward through the Madagascar trailer and the screen goes briefly blank, then you’re watching the Shark Tale trailer at normal speed, so you fast forward to the end of that and something else comes on at normal speed. Bad.

[Zebra]

@Miller

I am stunned - stunned - to read that California is not one of the 32 states that have signed onto this idiocy. I was pretty sure we’d be spearheading something like this, but blessedly, we don’t seem to be involved at all. How refreshing.

What state is home to Hollywood?

This is too far.

But bitching about the FBI warning? Get a MST3K DVD.

[Miller]

@Zebra

What state is home to Hollywood?

Way to miss the entire point of what I was saying, Zebra. Twice, even.

[zagloba]

I’d certainly be willing to accept an antismoking ad if they’re also prohibited from continuing to disable the skip button on ads and trailers.

[Zebra]

@Miller

Way to miss the entire point of what I was saying, Zebra. Twice, even.

:smack:

[Miller]

Happens to the best of us.

[mswas]

Heh, if people keep doing this, it will be incentive for people to pirate movies, just so they don’t have to watch the unecessary warnings they put at the beginning of them. We’ll have the FBI warning, the anti-smoking warning, the wear your seat belt warning.

Erek

[VegemiteMoose]

@mswas

Heh, if people keep doing this, it will be incentive for people to pirate movies, just so they don’t have to watch the unecessary warnings they put at the beginning of them. We’ll have the FBI warning, the anti-smoking warning, the wear your seat belt warning.

Erek

Psssssst. Post #30
Why do you suppose that is?