The MPAA has lost law suits against companies that alter the original movie to remove objectionable material for schools or families. So long as the companies were purchasing the original material, and labeling the movies accordingly, the MPAA and others couldn't stop them. Its pretty much what the TV stations do to R rated movies for TV.
Actually, the TV stations don't do it.
I found this out recently when I complained the AMC was showing Apocalypse Now Redux, when advertising Apocalypse Now. I prefer the latter. And it was edited for content (which REALLY get my goat, not only is it censorship, but AMC is "American Movie Classics" - I thought they were editing classics!)
But they responded that they don't do the editing, the copyright owners do (ie the studios). The studios put out a "for TV version". This is also why sometimes, you get a director named as "Alan Smithee", when the director wants nothing to do with the "final product" becoz the studio changed it around on him.
What the studio's were doing in the case you site is complaining that someone changed their copyrighted product without permisssion. And as OpenSource advocates, we should be behind them on this issue.
In the same vein, recently Steven Spielberg wouldn't allow a "for TV" version of Saving Private Ryan (he's big enuff to own his own products - as compared to smaller directors who sign away the product to get it made), which is why it was shown in full, and then the "whinging whiners" rang the FCC to complain and the language (not the gore mind you, the LANGUAGE !), and the TV stations are awaiting to hear about any possible fines (or it's been resolved, I don't know the timeline)
Digital copyrights are getting ready to explode. The average person is waking up to what's going on. Even my in-laws download music, and they didn't have a computer until just a couple of years ago. When the AARP start telling congress they want their MP3s, then the MPAA and RIAA will have met their match.
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