Closed Captions are censored. Why?

[NightwingBegins]

I'm watching 8 Mile right now. Every time someone says "nigga" it comes up as "*?*" every single time.

I watch Batman (1989) and every curse word is "..." or "heck" or "dang".

What is going on!?! I pay for these films to have uncensored captions to read. A movie can caption "****" "****" and "******" but gives a "*?*" for "nigga"?

What gives!?!

[NightwingBegins]

Also, it appears to be a Vudu issue. I was just on Movies Anywhere and Joker says "gruesome son of a *****" in the captions. Vent back to Vudu and he says "gruesome son of a Bat."

What gives? Why are you censoring films? Do the studios know this?

[jeremymc7]

I've seen this before on various titles of which I can't recall.

Even some adult animation titles - like Adult Swim titles or WB DC animation titles.

[NightwingBegins]

I've seen this before on various titles of which I can't recall.

Even some adult animation titles - like Adult Swim titles or WB DC animation titles.

You know what doesn't make sense to me? The words that aren't censored on 8 Mile you can't say here because they turn into an asterix for each letter. But you can say "nigga" here, even tho that's the one word the movie censored on Vudu. I'm an adult and paid for the movie which should have each word represented in a rated R title (actually, any title I purchase should not be censored by the service), yet any child can access this free website and see the word they censored. Tell me how that bass ackward logic works?

[jeremymc7]

Can’t explain it. Especially since I know that some shows like Adult Swim Rick & Morty has langue in it that is not on Adult Swim, HBOMax or Hulu. I was shocked when I bought it on Vudu that is not there on any other service. Cable (and steaming) doesn’t have the same limitations of say broadcast TV. Vudu and even the Blu-Ray sets don’t have any mention of unedited or unrated content; in my limited experience. I can’t speak to the CC on that particular title not matching the audio on Vudu since I don’t need it on that title.

I will say that I do experience weird things with CC on shows, Vudu or not. The BBC shows for example seem to censor the CC but not the audio. Oddly they don’t censor some words that obviously would seem more likely to be censored than other words that would seem far less likely to be censored. CC is just weird. Other shows on Netflix the CC can be complexly different than the audio. If it’s a foreign audio issue my wouldn’t the dub audio match the translated CC. I would expect they’re done my different companies but the difference can be huge in some cases.

[NightwingBegins]

I'm not talking about streaming services. I'm talking about things I actually own. Vudu is supposed to be uncensored and you own what you buy. It's supposed to reflect the DVD or the Blu-ray. That's why Rick & Morty is uncensored on Vudu.

I want to know what gives Vudu the right to change the captions of these things and censor things on the behalf of others who didn't ask for it at all.

As far as foreign films go and why the captions don't match the dubs is because the captions is a translation of the of the native foreign language. When things gets dubbed they reword things to make sense and to sound like it's native English. "I have now become more powerful" doesn't roll off the tongue like "I'm now more powerful than ever!" This isn't the same situation.

They are literally changing the captions not to offend anyone and no one asked for them to. It goes against the rights of the film and the studios need to be made aware of this.

[jeremymc7]

I want to know what gives Vudu the right to change the captions of these things and censor things on the behalf of others who didn't ask for it at all.

I doubt Vudu is changing the captions to censor them. It’s likely just what the studios provide.

[FelipeF]

I doubt Vudu is changing the captions to censor them. It’s likely just what the studios provide.

Exactly this. We do not create the closed captions you see on these titles. They are all sourced from the studios.