Debate on ‘sanitizing’ continues

Paul Brownfield’s review of “Bleep! Censoring Hollywood” [“Unkind Cuts or Necessary Sanitization?” April 26] makes a good point about Hollywood’s cynicism and lack of dignity, but unfortunately, in the context of third-party “sanitizing,” his argument holds as much validity as saying a woman deserved to be sexually assaulted because she was dressed provocatively.

Luckily for all of us -- newspaper writers included -- the 1st Amendment and hundreds of years of copyright law don’t distinguish between good art and bad. It’s all protected.

The point missed in the debate about film “sanitizing” is that most people have certain expectations about what will be seen on their television screens, because broadcast television -- not subject to the 1st Amendment -- has been regulated by the government since its inception. Now when they view DVDs -- which are protected -- on those same televisions, they are dismayed that the content is not similarly sanitized.

But that cannot be redressed by overturning copyright laws. From a copyright standpoint, a DVD is essentially the same as a book. If I edited out all references to the Catholic Church from “The DaVinci Code” and then published that version without Dan Brown’s permission, how many hours would transpire before Doubleday had a restraining order against me?

And, yes, many books are really bad. Should only the bad ones be allowed to be re-edited? How about the blasphemous ones like “The Satanic Verses”? It’s dismaying to see a fellow writer like Brownfield seem so cheerful as he slides down the slippery slope.

Marshall Herskovitz

Santa Monica

Herskovitz is a Hollywood writer and producer.

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Am I the only one who is reminded of the recent music downloading scandals? Just like the music industry, movie companies should wake up and realize they can stop this kind of piracy by releasing their own G-rated DVDs of movies for family viewing.

Anne Strieber

Hollywood

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If people don’t want to see PG-13 or R-rated films, just don’t go see them! What is this country coming to?

Ray Uhler

Tustin