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It wasn't, but it was my understanding that that self-policing was in effect because they didn't want the law to exist. Now that the law -can't- exist, will th

• aamar 15y ago
  Initially, movies were not protected by U.S. free speech laws, but they've (generally) been protected since the 1950s[1]. So today's opinion may not change things meaningfully (I haven't read it yet). There is likely good business incentive to keep the policy. If parents can be confident their children will be barred from movies they'd want to forbid, they'll be more likely to send them to the theater, give them cash to see movies, etc. The MPAA probably gathers enough data & does enough market research to have some sense of whether or not this outweighs the increased revenue from teenagers seeing more adult fare. [1] Brief history: http://www.lehigh.edu/~infirst/moviecensorship.html http://www.lehigh.edu/~infirst/moviecensorship.html