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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.

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?

No one is realistically arguing that, which comes under Fair Use. As long as you're the end user, you can do whatever you want with it. Edit it, burn it, or make a hat out of it. The question is whether you can buy that book, make a copy of it that you like better, then put the copy back in the original dust jacket and re-sell it, while keeping the original copy. I'd also be interested in seeing their enormous stack of original copies. If any of those found their way onto the market, they're toast.

Here's another hypothetical: I buy a CD, then burn a copy of it, cutting out a track I don't like. Then I sell the copy in the original case, while keeping the original. Do you think that's not a violation of Fair Use?

If the studios were smart, they'd get out ahead of this and just sell the airline-edited versions, But they're not particularly smart sometimes. What they do have is flotillas of the best copyright lawyers in the country. Don't bet against them prevailing in this case.