LOS ANGELES, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- The MPAA has partially lifted its screener ban and will allow videocassette copies of nominated movies to be sent to Oscar voters.
Under the new plan, only the 6,000 plus members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will get screeners.
Others, like the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Screen Actors Guild nominating committee and the various critics' associations, will not, the Hollywood Reporter said. The ban had been invoked to avoid piracy.
The compromise, which was approved at a teleconference by the heads of the MPAA member companies along with nonsignatories New Line Cinema and DreamWorks Pictures, was announced jointly by Academy president Frank Pierson and MPAA president Jack Valenti.
The plan was characterized as a one-year experiment.
