[Wikipedia-l] Re: Two issues here: what is legal to have on the server and what is legal in the user's nation

Thu May 22 20:17:00 UTC 2003

On Thu, 2003-05-22 at 13:56, Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
> > > But for the most part, he's right: there are no restrictions on
> > > nudity in movies, but the American market is such that too much
> > > explicit sex will actually hurt the mass-market value of a movie.
> > > French folks don't have a problem taking their kids to nice
> > > family movie that happens to have a bit of nudity in it. American
> > > parents in the heartland will consider a movie with any nudity to
> > > be for adults only, and its market will be hurt.
> > 
> > While technically true, that's grossly misleading. There are few 
> > legal restrictions on nudity in the movies, but there are draconian
> > quasi-legal industry restrictions.
> > 
> > Instead of "the American market is such that too much explicit sex will
> > actually hurt the mass-market value of a movie" the more accurate
> > portrayal is
> > 
> > Any explicit sex will prevent a movie from being shown in any mainstream
> > theater, with few exceptions.
> > 
> > The MPAA decides the moral code for acceptable movies with an iron fist,
> > often demanding changes to the movie for it to get a "non-adult" rating.
> > 
> > Any movie they deem to be NC-17 has no financial future in U.S. movie
> > theaters.
> 
> Cunc is the one misrepresenting the facts here: there are /no/
> legal restrictions on nudity in movies of any kind, period. Yes, the
> MPAA rules with "an iron fist", but it is precisely because that's
> the way the American public wants it. He may not like the fact that
> most Americans want it that way, but the fact remains that they do.
> There have certainly been protests of the MPAA (and I personally
> consider Jack Valenti to be the Antichrist, for many reasons), but
> those protests have been from a small minority of folks like us, not
> from the people as a whole, who still overwhelmingly support them.
> You can't blame the failure of adult-only movies on anything but
> good old American prudery.

Yes there are: try child prOn, indecency and obscenity laws. Period. I
never claimed that the American public doesn't like the way the MPAA
operates. However, to believe that the current movie distribution system
is the only one acceptable to the American public would be naive.

But this isn't a disgreement about facts, just which facts are
important. I should have said "I think it's grossly misleading". 