Posted by sean at threshold9n.jpmorgan.com on August 08, 2001 at 15:50:45:
In Reply to: Allow me to clarify posted by erran on August 08, 2001 at 15:41:04:
: No, I'm serious. Go read www.cnn.com or something. So the question becomes, do we accept the MPAA warts and all, or do we cheer on the Feds who will institute a new, most likely more stringent, universal system?
No, the question is do we accept the MPAA or do we fix the MPAA. What the Feds want is unconstitutional and can easily be proven as such. (Has in the past, in fact.) The advantage of the MPAA is that, since there are no laws regarding it, it's not, from a legal standpoint, censorship. But since many theatres won't show un- or NC-17-rated movies, it becomes de facto censorship. All ratings boards through all media are voluntary. That's the only way that they skirt the censorship; technicalities.