Is it fair use to take movies, edit out the naughty/offensive stuff, then rent them out?
Miller at Lawmeme has a story on "Cleanflicks" - a small video rental chain which purchases movies on tape, and edits everything its customers are expected to dislike – sex, violence and “bad” language, before renting the movies out to customers (gee, I wonder how much of Saving Private Ryan would be left? Let alone, say, 9 and a half weeks..... I understand they have lots of copies of Shrek. just kidding). Some of those films must be really short.
Does raise a question though - is that allowed?
Doesn't sound like any of our heads of "fair dealing" here in Australia, does it? It's hardly 'reporting of news', nor is it 'for personal research or study', and I very much doubt it is "criticism and review", at least on the extraordinarily narrow view of what constitutes criticism and review here in Australia following the Panel case.
Next question: would it breach the (relatively) recently introduced moral rights provisions? At first blush it looks like "derogatory treatment" - defined in relation to films as "the doing, in relation to the film, of anything that results in a material distortion of, the mutilation of, or a material alteration to, the film that is prejudicial to the maker's honour or reputation". But then it highlights just how strange our definition of "derogatory treatment" is - some would argue it's not prejudicial to the film-makers reputation to have bits cut out by someone else for a small group of viewers - but then, I doubt any film-makers would agree!!!