They do something similar on the video shows in Japan, except its usually the logos of the American show (or websites, nowadays) that originally ran the videos that get pixellated.
I don’t know if they actually purchased any usage rights or if they’re just pirating their content, but just about every video from overseas has somebody else’s ID logo visible (and frequently still legible) in it.
It’s due to a virus called pixelation. (You Tube vid)
I’ve come across a number of porn sites where the images or logos on the models’ clothing are pixellated or blurred out. It wasn’t too hard to figure out why - I assume that Hurley or Abercrombie & Fitch don’t want their names prominently associated with porn.
Similarly, there’s the cover of Rush’s 1980 album Permanent Waves. It’s hard to see at that size, but immediately to the woman’s right, in the background, are three large signs, like you would see in front of stores or restaurants. In the original artwork these signs displayed the logos of some large, well-known companies (Coca-Cola was one, I believe). Before the cover art was published, the companies in question objected to the signs’ proximity to the woman’s exposed underwear and as a result the artwork was modified, replacing the corporate logos with the band members’ names.
I think there must be some exception to the rules regarding giving your permission to use your image, that covers people who have been charged with crimes.
I watch The First Forty-Eight (a kinda dark “fly on the wall documentary” show about homicide detectives) occasionally and you can always tell if someone did it or not (or at least gets charged with it) by whether they face is pixellated. If someone ends up walking, or ends up just being a witness, their face will usually be pixellated, if they end up being charged with the crime (the show airs before the start of the trial usually) it will never be.
I’m not sure why this is, its not a state-by-state thing, the show is filmed in various different homocide dept’s in different states.
One interesting twist in Japan is that the news programs always pixelize (finally looked up the spelling) handcuffs when a suspect/defendant being escorted by the police. Of course, the mass of pixels draws much more attention than the handcuffs would, and makes it immediately obvious what’s being hidden.
I’ve often wondered if there would be grounds for a defamation suit if a TV show simply ran images of a public figure in ordinary situations, but with their wrist area pixelized. I’d think that the claim that doing so makes it appear that the person shown is wearing handcuffs would run counter to the purpose of pixelizing handcuffs in the first place.
Before they routinely pixellated faces on the news, a news story almost cost me a relationship.
I drove through a sobriety checkpoint with a buddy in the passenger seat who had long hair. The cop asked if I had been drinking, I said “No”, and he waved me through. The whole time there was a bright light in my eyes that I assumed was the cop’s flashlight–in retrospect it must have been the video camera’s light.
Apparently, the news story that night gave the wrong impression. Three of my girlfriend’s friends told her that they saw me on TV being arrested for DUI and that I had been with a blond girl.
She called, expecting to leave a message on my machine about never wanting to see me again, and was surprised when I answered. She asked first about the blond and believed me at once when I told her it was Andrew–she knew him (and his hair). Obviously I wouldn’t be home so quick if I had gone to jail, and I told her so.
The whole thing blew over, fortunately, but it could have been completely avoided if they had blurred my face. If it had cost me the love of the woman who was soon to be my wife, I would have sued.
I’ve often wondered about the “Pixellating products/logos” thing myself; 95% of the time it’s obvious what’s being blurred out anyway so why bother?
Then again, I’ve only ever seen this in American TV shows- British, Australian, and NZ shows don’t seem to bother with the practice, fortunately.
I have to say blurring out logos and the like is on my list of American TV Pet Hates, along with subtitling English Language speakers who have Non-US Accents; but that’s a different thread…
Wife Swap does something I’ve never been able to understand: they turn all the books in the house so the spines face inward, so you can’t see the titles.
Has copyright law become so crazy that even book covers have to be concealed or altered??
You’re still sticking to that story? Give it up already.
Yeah, but how much difference is there between porn and an Abercrombie & Fitch ad, really?
To be perfectly honest, when I watch a movie with British actors (like, say, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), it takes a few minutes to become accustomed to the accent, and until then I honestly do have a difficult time understanding the dialog. Heck, I sometimes have a hard time understanding people with a heavy Southern U.S. accent. So subtitles are actually kind of handy in cases where you only get to hear the speaker for a few seconds, which is not enough time to adjust to the accent.
Well, maybe not that brand specifically. But I’ve seen the blurring on just about any article of clothing with a prominent logo or image. One model was wearing a T-shirt with Britney Spears’ face on it, all blurred out. Fortunately they don’t have to do that too much, since the clothes are coming off soon anyway
Are you serious? Wow, I have never heard of that before.
I guess one of the advantages of growing up in NZ is you get used to different accents- especially English ones- pretty quickly.
I guess it’s not all British accents. In HHGTTG, for example, I didn’t have any trouble at all understanding the voice of the Guide itself. But early in the movie I had a lot of trouble with Arthur Dent’s dialog. Some of it, I suspect, was that early in the movie there’s the whole house getting knocked down thing going on and the accompanying racket, and most of Arthur’s dialog consisted of short, panicked exclamations and clipped snippets instead of full, well-enunciated sentences, so it sort of got lost in the mix.