I don't get it. TV has been doing this since I was a kid, about a thousand years ago.
If they didn't much of the garbage Hollywood cranks out could never be shown on TV.
Well, the response your going to get is that the TV versions were edited with the permission of the "creator". Of course, that only addresses the copyright side of the debate (and as I've stated elsewhere, I don't find it totally convincing) and not the dramatic bilge that Hollywood is spewing about "artistic vision". In reality, the director, screenwriters, etc., often don't make decisions such as whether it gets put on TV and with what pieces removed.(Spielberg does, but he's special.) Others at the studio do. Those guys are in it for pure profit, not for any vision. Thus, I think the artist's vision part of the argument is very weak. In the end, it's all about money, and since this company actually buys the vidoes before it changes them, the studios aren't losing any sales. (In fact, I expect they are gaining sales.)