Indiana Prosecutor Gets A Clue, Drops Whole Redbox Deal

The Indiana Prosecutor that threatened businesses leasing space to movie rental vending machines last week with a Class D felony has decided not to follow through on that.

After receiving a number of phone calls, e-mails and talking with people, Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Stan Levco said Friday he has decided not to prosecute stores over the rental of movies for mature audiences from kiosks such as redbox and moviecube.

"It's not an exact barometer — I didn't take a poll — but it just seemed pretty clear to me that the community would not be behind the prosecution of this," Levco said Friday during a news conference at his office.

"That wasn't the only factor, but it certainly was a factor."...
Levco said, normally, community sentiment is not a deciding factor in whether to prosecute a case. During the course of his research, he said, in some communities the kiosks have been removed.

"In this case, the criminal statute says the offending material must violate community standards. Originally, I didn't think this was going to attract any attention. I just thought it was a routine matter. I originally thought the way it was going to be resolved was the videos would be removed. But as I got further in, I realized that was not going to be the case."

Levco said he was first contacted about the issue in December by a representative of local video stores, and the investigation continued in January. The complainer's position was that video stores check identification to ensure that minors were not viewing the material, but the kiosks may not, Levco said.

[via Courier-Press]

Why Does Indiana Hate Redbox?

This week the office of Vanderburgh County, Indiana Prosecutor Stanley Levco threatened criminal charges against retailers with DVD rental kiosks on their premises unless they remove R-rated movies and other material considered harmful to children. The office of the prosecutor cites an Indiana law prohibiting dissemination of matter harmful to minors, a Class D felony.

Any action taken against movie rental kiosks would primarily affect Redbox, with 880 machines in Indiana. Competitors Movie Cube and Blockbuster Express also operate kiosks in Indiana, but only have about 16 locations combined in the state, according to the websites of each company.

Letters sent to retailers in recent weeks by the office of Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Stanley Levco may amount to the largest crackdown yet in Indiana.
It's driven, at least in part, by the kiosks' old-school competitors -- the brick-and-mortar video stores that say they provide safeguards by requiring customers renting R-rated DVDs to show ID.
Kiosks, they say, aren't playing by the same rules, though Redbox officials say their kiosks require customers to affirm their age and are on firm legal ground.
"I'm not on a crusade," said Paul Black, an Evansville attorney who says he suggested the inquiry to Levco's office on behalf of a client who operates several video store locations. "We're just looking for a level playing field here."
Black, who declined to identify his client, said Levco's office sent letters to about a dozen stores in Vanderburgh County.
Video Buyers Group, a trade organization representing 1,700 independent video store owners, also has been in contact with Levco about his latest action against kiosks, said Jon Engen, the organization's marketing manager.

This is not the first time Redbox has had trouble in Indiana. In late 2007, Union City, Indiana officials were successful in having Redbox remove R-rated films from McDonald's locations. Then, in 2008, the city of Winchester raised the same issue with Redbox locations at Walmart.

Arguments about the appropriateness of movie ratings aside, forcing a company to carry only G-rated films would effectively drive it out of business. A quick look at box office results shows less than 10 new films were released in 2009 that were rated G. Expanding this search to PG shows about 35 more new films released in 2009. Film ratings are a result of a voluntary system put in place by the MPAA to guide parents and do not reflect or constitute law. No law states films must be rated or that retailers or theaters must abide by MPAA ratings.

Does this represent some vendetta Indiana officials seem to have against the movie vending company? Are residents of Indiana more conservative than those of the average state? Or, as suggested by the article, are Indiana officials susceptible to influence by competing brick-and-mortar video stores and their trade organizations?

In a world where any content imaginable can be almost instantly accessed in any home with an internet connection, or on your child's mobile phone or handheld video game, this is an example of officials that are stuck in decades-old thinking and are out of touch with reality.

[via Courier-Journal]

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Indiana Town Successful In Removing Titles From Redbox

In October, I posted about Union City, Indiana whose city council asked the local McDonald's franchise to remove R-rated and unrated titles from it's Redbox movie rental kiosks. They had gone so far as to request the kiosks carry only G-rated product.
Now apparently they have succeeded in getting McDonalds to remove the R-rated titles. According to Union City's mayor, the owner of the Union City McDonald’s has agreed to take out the R-rated titles after being threatened with a Union City public nuisance citation. It was not reported if unrated titles with similar content were also removed. The city council had been pressuring the McDonalds franchise to remove the offending titles, complaining that it was too easy for young customers to rent titles rated appropriate only for people older than 17.
Should this be repeated in other cities, it will certainly give traditional brick and mortar video stores an advantage over the kiosk rental machines. A quick informal count of the 195 films in wide release in 2007 showed about 28% to be rated R; although it is common for DVD releases of films not rated R theatrically to include content which would have earned the film an R rating, often being touted as 'Unrated!' or 'The version you couldn't see in theaters!' The Union City mayor stated R-rated films made up 40% of the titles for rent in the Redbox kiosks.

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Indiana Town Questions Redbox Rentals

Legislators in a small Indiana town are questioning why Redbox includes R-rated movies in its kiosks.
The trademark red kiosks, which rent DVDs are often located in kid-trafficked areas such as McDonalds. This has been a cause of concern for the Union City, Indiana city council who has asked the local McDonald's franchise to remove R-rated and unrated titles from it's kiosks and carry only G-rated product(!) Having received no response from the franchise, the council is preparing to seek a state injunction to remove the mature movies from McDonald's locations.
This will be interesting to see how this plays out. Their argument will undoubtedly be 'cigarettes and alcohol are not sold in vending machines, neither should these movies.' That may be, but while there are laws against selling alcohol and cigarettes to minors, entertainment product is not covered by similar laws. The rating systems for movies, games, and TV shows are voluntary, not enforced by any law or government agency (unless there are local ordinances against the rental, sale, or exhibition of movies with a certain MPAA rating.)
Redbox is co-owned by McDonald's and Coinstar.

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