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Is it ethical to alter the content of a movie by cutting out scenes deemed inappropriate, or does this go against the artistic integrity of the film? How do you navigate the line between censorship and personal preference when it comes to editing movies for personal viewing?

If you purchased the media, what you do with it afterward (for your personal use) is up to you, at least in the United States. Other countries... have other rules.

You do not have to be concerned about "ethics" or "artistic integrity" for your personal use.

Other uses are beyond the intention of this forum.

At first glance, I thought this thread may be a duplicate of a previous thread...

Cutting out inappropriate scenes

..but maybe not. The previous one might contain some useful information at any rate.

(Perhaps the two threads might even be merged?)

I think the poster is trying to test the bounds of the forum; only 3 of the "what if we pirate things" topics he has posted were allowed through.

All the others were variations of this one. All could have been combined into a single topic. None were outstandingly appropriate for the users of this forum, but, individually, might speak to the ethics of someone using this software to pirate disks.

Develobonia wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 13, 2024 4:30 pm

Is it ethical to alter the content of a movie by cutting out scenes deemed inappropriate, or does this go against the artistic integrity of the film?

I think most movie directors would say altering the content of their movie damages the artistic integrity of the film and is therefore unethical. It may not, however, go against one's morals or values. For example, if you really want to see Pulp Fiction (1994) but you really don't like hearing the F-word and you take the time to alter your copy to remove all the instances of the F-word, then who am I to argue you're wrong? I can watch my copy and you can watch your copy and Quentin Tarantino can cry himself to sleep worrying about artistic integrity on a giant pile of $100 bills.

Develobonia wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 13, 2024 4:30 pm

How do you navigate the line between censorship and personal preference when it comes to editing movies for personal viewing?

I don't know if it is possible to experience censorship when the party responsible for censoring is yourself. I'm being pedantic, of course, but the word censorship is abused these days, in my view.
Where censorship comes into play is when you decide your version of Pulp Fiction without the F-word is now the only version of Pulp Fiction and demand that all over versions be put in the memory hole. Now you are a censor and an asshole.

I think this is where George Lucas got into trouble with the fans of the original Star Wars movies. He made changes to the 'original' theatrical versions which prevented them from existing into the future. If he had made the 'special edition' versions of the films in such a way as to not alter the 'original' theatrical releases people could like and enjoy whichever version was their favorite for into the future.

Whatever the laws governing copyright and ownership are in the country where you make your mass-market art, once that art is released to the world, the world sort-of owns it in a way. If, later on, you want to change it, go for it, but change a copy. And now there will be two versions.