V Chip

Acacia Research Corp. said Friday that it lost a patent infringement claim against television makers over its "V-chip" technology in the early stages of litigation. The claim was dismissed by the U.S. District Court in Connecticut, the Newport Beach company said. Acacia might pursue antitrust charges or file an appeal. V-chips, designed to let parents block adult and violent shows from their sets, are required in televisions with screens larger than 13 inches and sold after 1999.

Sex. Violence. Protecting children. Morality, politics and culture. With all these enticing elements in the mix, why don't people seem to care about the V-chip? Perhaps because the debate, politicized from the get-go, has so seldom been waged in honest terms. This came to mind at a recent daylong seminar, "Filtering Out Sex and Violence," sponsored by the USC Law School.

Time for a caffeine check at Broadcasting & Cable magazine. B&C is a weekly trade publication whose editorial page is having a major seizure over the V-chip. That's the Congress-mandated gizmo for future TV sets that will allow viewers to electronically block certain programs on the basis of their industry-designated ratings for sex and violence.

A panel of prominent show business figures, including three of television's most influential producers, squared off against the government sponsors of the V-chip in a passionate debate marked by veiled threats of censorship. And by the time the event at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences wrapped up Wednesday night, consensus between the opposing sides seemed to be as far away as ever.

With the Dow Jones industrial average hitting a record high of 7,333.55 last Thursday--before diving 138.88 points on Friday to 7,194.67, as jitters revived over Tuesday's Fed meeting--the speed with which stocks have rebounded from their early-spring decline remains a source of amazement on Wall Street.

While they officially welcomed President Clinton's call for a White House meeting on violence and children's programming, executives at the broadcast television networks said Wednesday that they are not likely to change their opposition to the V-chip device he favors to screen out violent content. "We are opposed to a ratings system that separates us from our audience by a technological device," CBS Vice President Martin Franks said in an interview.

President Clinton and Congress want every television set in America outfitted with a "V-chip" that can block out violent programs, but Gilbert and Pauline Villeneuve actually had one in their home for three months and reached a somewhat different conclusion. "It's not ready. It's cumbersome and annoying," Gilbert says. "Basically a nuisance," Pauline says.

If you thought programming your VCR was tough, wait until you try blocking out offensive programming from your television. Starting July 1, half of all televisions coming off the assembly line with 13-inch screens or greater will have to be equipped with the so-called V-Chip, a device that allows parents to block television programming that they believe may be harmful to their children. By the end of the year, all of these televisions will have to be manufactured with the chip.

Tim Collings admits feeling a bit like an expectant father on the eve of his creation, the V-chip, becoming available in the U.S., as new TV sets featuring the technology finally begin finding their way into American homes. An assistant professor at Technical University of British Columbia in Surrey, B.C.

The presidential campaign has stirred up some troubling political winds that are headed, ominously, in the direction of the entertainment industry. Indeed, Hollywood seems to be a favorite scapegoat of both ends of the ideological spectrum this election season. First, Sen. Bob Dole castigated Hollywood for "dealing in nightmares of depravity"--this in a year when the Golden Globes for best pictures went to "Sense and Sensibility" and "Babe."