Disney already has control over 35% of the films we watch. Should they also control how we choose to watch films?
Over this last summer, Disney won $62.4 million in a lawsuit for copyright infringement against VidAngel. VidAngel is a company that allows families and individuals to stream entertainment and filter out offensive content. Filtering entertainment for individual use is a right that everyone should have, and a right that Disney shouldn’t be able to use its immense power to take away.
Disney’s main argument in court against VidAngel is not about VidAngel’s actual use of filters, but their streaming business model. However, when taking a closer look at the battle, it becomes clear that Disney’s real problem with VidAngel is the filtering service that it provides.
Disney argued in court that VidAngel should have streamed by obtaining a license, but Disney never allowed VidAngel to buy that license. The reason Disney would not sell VidAngel a license is because they have an agreement with a group called The Directors Guild not to license to anyone who would filter entertainment as that would be “degrading” an artist’s work.
Disney should consider that filtering is good for business. Filtered content expands the market reach of their films. Over one million people have used VidAngel, which isn’t a lot to Disney, but is still an impressive number for a company that only started in 2015.
There are many people who use VidAngel to view films that they would not have watched without filtering. I personally watched many films and TV shows on VidAngel that I would never consider watching without filters. Filtering services increase the amount of potential consumers.
There is no reason why Disney should be able to control how a person chooses to watch a film in their own home. Those who watch VidAngel are paying customers.
Saying that filtering shouldn’t be allowed because it degrades art is like saying that if someone buys a print of an artwork they shouldn’t be allowed to cut pieces of the print out. Whether or not the artist wants the print to be cut up doesn’t matter at this point. The person cutting up the print bought it just like everyone else, and now they have the right to do what they want with that print.
Now, I’m not saying that person should be able to claim that their cut up print is the same as the original print, but that is not what VidAngel is doing. Those who use VidAngel’s filtering services know what they are choosing to filter out, and they are only filtering on a private level, not a commercial one.
Filtering is a good service that can allow people to enjoy content without lowering their personal standards. Filtering is something that Disney should be trying to work with, not against. Disney shouldn’t be able to tell us how to watch movies in our own home.
To protect your right to filter, contact your members of Congress and tell them why you support filtering and ask them to support the revision to the Family Movie Act of 2005 to bring it up to date with modern technology like streaming.
I hope that over time Disney will see the mistake they have made in fighting against filtering, because it is upsetting for me to see a conflict between two things I love.
Sydni Hales
Sydni Hales is a freshman studying at Brigham Young University.