The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, includes provisions to put to rest a dispute over whether the “jump-and-skip” technology, marketed by several companies including Utah's ClearPlay, violates copyright laws.

Hollywood directors, including such heavyweights as Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, have sued companies marketing the filtering technology, claiming it alters the artistic integrity of the film and is against the law.

Hatch's bill, approved late Tuesday, would simply state that such technology is legal.

“Parents should have control over what their children see, not movie studios in Hollywood,” Hatch said. “This bill ensures that parents will have access to technology that filters through the crude and violent scenes that always seem to creep into what would otherwise be good films.”

The ClearPlay system works with a normal DVD of the movie and a companion disc that can be programmed to tell the DVD player when to skip scenes containing violence, profanity, sexual content or other objectionable material.

Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, is a co-sponsor of the House version of the legislation.

The bill also seeks to criminalize the use of camcorders to film movies in theaters; would enable the Library of Congress to continue preserving aging films; and would allow libraries to make copies of materials that are nearing the end of their copyright life and are not commercially valuable and cost too much to buy.

“This is a bipartisan bill that . . . will help ensure the preservation of America's cultural heritage,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a co-sponsor.

The Senate passed similar legislation at the end of the last Congress, but Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., had attached a measure to regulate professional boxing and the House did not approve the package.