OK,, lets change words here then and work on the legality of 'censorship'.
The issue isn't censorship -- you can't take someone else's work and screw around with the intent of distributing it.
However, copyrights do eventually expire. One of the major modern screw-ups in regards to copyright law was the movie It's a Wonderful Life. The copyright wasn't re-newed and anyone who owned a copy -- basically television stations --could play it as often as they wanted without paying royalties. Hence, it became a Christmas classic.