In the wake of singer Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction," retail giant Wal-Mart launched ClearPlay for 79 dollars, which filters out scenes from more than 100 films, including "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Terminator 3."

To the cheers of the morally conservative and the jeers of film buffs, for a monthly subscription of five dollars, a company based in Salt Lake City, Utah offers nearly 500 film filters, which can be downloaded from the Internet.

Matt Jarman and his brother Lee founded ClearPlay. They now have 11 employees. Jarman said there is no religious message to his work. He only wanted to watch films the whole family could enjoy.

"In the same way that airline or television versions aren't edited for any particular religion, ClearPlay provides filtering options in areas where there are general public sensitivities like graphic violence, strong language and sexually explicit content," Jarman said.

The marketing idea came after Jackson showed her breast to 100 million Americans during the Superbowl half-time show in February, according to Dave Arland of Thomson, which markets the player under the RCA brand.

"I think there is a market for something that gives parents more control. The issue of indecency on television or films was obviously highlighted by the Superbowl scandal. This seems to be of heightened interest.

"There are people who have pushed the limit and there are people who want to have that control.

"It is also a good tool for parental control. They can screen out, they know what their kids are watching," he said.

However, that is not what the labor union for film directors thinks. It sued Thomson.

The suit was seconded by Disney, MGM, Warner Bros., Sony, DreamWorks, Universal, Fox and Paramount, as well as directors such as Steven Spielberg. They argued that the filters violate their ownership rights.

"ClearPlay software edits movies to conform to ClearPlay's vision of a movie instead of letting audiences see, and judge for themselves, what writers wrote, what actors said and what directors envisioned," the Directors Guild of America said in a statement.

"Ultimately, it is a violation of law and just wrong to profit from selling software that changes the intent of movies you didn't create and don't own."

However, the directors of ClearPlay deny that they have changed the film.

"Parents can screen out, it is not a requirement," Arland said.

"ClearPlay offers the tool."

In each case, the options are varied. There are three main categories: violence, explicit scenes and nudity, and language.

Then, there are 14 sub-categories: moderate violence, graphic violence, disturbing images, sensual content, crude sensual content, nudity, explicit sexual situations, vain reference to deity, crude language and humor, ethnic and social slurs, cursing, and strong profanity.

The critics, like USA Today, were harsh.

"Too often the cuts are clunky, eliminating portions of sentences and leaving only dead air, or speeding over objectionable items so they emerge almost as blips," the nationally distributed daily said.

"The awkward presentation could backfire as a way to sanitize mass entertainment and make it palatable for family audiences.

"Plus, the cuts are so obvious they could pique the curiosity of young minds. Sometimes a vivid imagination can be worse than the reality."

However, many in the United States applauded the idea.

"Every negative comment I've heard about ClearPlay included the word 'censorship,'" said Carl on KZION, a Mormon Internet radio station.

"How can that be, since no one is forcing the consumer to purchase this item? Despite the proliferation of vulgar speech and graphic sex and violence in movies, there are some of us who want no part of it.

"ClearPlay would allow us to relax and watch a film that we would normally consider off limits.

"Would I buy a ClearPlay DVD player? Yes!!!"

SPACE.WIRE