[Heyworth]

They are NOT buying one copy, editing it and then reselling multiple copies. That would be a clear violation of copyright law.

Uh, I don't think that's the case. At least one of these outfits, Cleanflicks, has a chain of video rental stores. I seriously doubt that they're buying individual copies of each video, cutting out the offensive stuff, then selling or renting that individual copy. Plus they're also selling DVDs, which by their nature means they're making copies.

[Bubba_Leroy]

For each edited copy that CleanFlicks sells or rents, CleanFlicks buys an unedited copy. They sell and rent the edited copies in the original packaging that the purchased copy came in. That is why the movie studies have had to resort to suing them for trademark violation, alleging that CleanFlicks violates trademark law when they rent or sell an altered movie in the original packaging.

If they bought one copy and then sold or rented multiple copies it would be a slam dunk case of copyright infringement and they would have been imediately shut down.

[I still care]

They pay for every copy - otherwise it would be against the copyright law and they know it. And Hollywood isn't just against the chains. They don't want the individual consumer to have access to software or machines that can edit the movie. Which is to say if I buy a book, and want my kids to read it, but I pull a page out first, I have no right to do that?

My case in point is "The Christmas Story". Some stations produce a version where a couple of curses are edited out, and another where "smarta$$", is changed to "smarty". I highly prefer that version, and I don't know why anyone should be concerned with that but me and my family. I cringe each time I see it with the curses, and it was a bad decision by the director to put that in there. It is, after all, a family film.