But the judge said that those edits cause "irreparable injury to the creative artistic expression in the copyrighted movies."
Films edited for airplanes, foreign markets etc. have the edits approved by the copyright holder. So, if I wanted to argue with you, I'd say that the edits are skillfully done with much agonizing over the contex, etc. In fact, the guys in Utah were probably editing along the same lines as the airline edits, etc. However, the Utah guys were editing without permission.
Let's be flat out honest here. The Utah guys saw a market that wasn't being addressed. Being "go getter" types, they saw an opportunity. This is all fine and good, except they didn't pay the copyright holder. It's as if they found a vacant field next to a busy highway and built a Dairy Queen on it without asking the owner's permission.
This is same judge that ruled out any evidence in the Oklahoma City bombing trial tying in Arab participation.