Bowing to outcry from low- budget filmmakers, independent studios and movie critics, Hollywood 's major film studios agreed Thursday to lift a controversial ban on mailing screener videotapes of films contending for Oscars.

A deal was reached by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which represents seven major Hollywood studios, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which hands out the annual Oscars awards.

Under the deal, only videotapes, not DVDs will be sent to about 6,000 AMPAS voting members who agree not to pass along the video to other people. The tapes contain anti-piracy technology that can trace down to any individual who gives away the tape for pirating.

Should any AMPAS voting member is caught for pirating the tape, the member would be expelled from the Academy.

Meanwhile, the studios agreed to organize special screenings of their films for other award groups, such as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which awards the Golden Globes, or the Screen Actors Guild, which has its own prestigious awards.

The MPAA made the compromise after three weeks of protests from filmmakers, independent studios and movie critics. For smaller films in particular, the free screener videos are a crucial part of their push for Oscars and other awards.

The MPAA imposed the DVD and video ban on Sept. 30, saying it was an effort to crack down on piracy. The movie industry wants to avoid the kind of massive pirating problems that have beset the record industry.

But the ban pitted studios against their own specialized film units, scrambled the budgets for award season campaigning and creating fears among independent filmmakers that the ban was an attempt by the major studios to squash them and reclaim the awards attention.

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