I'm totally fine with this. If Apple and Criterion want to re-edit the content they broadcast, that's their freedom of expression. If I want to see the original, I'll look elsewhere.
But it’s the distributor, Disney doing the editing. There isn’t somewhere else to look. The discs are out of print and if you bought it digitally it’s been retroactively changed to this new version…
Ahoy, matey. If you really must watch an old Disney movie the only ethical way to get one is to pirate it. Otherwise you would be supporting abusive copyright terms that prevent people to sharing something that has become part of their culture for generations. Having a few years of copyright is understandable since companies do need to be able to make money from their investments, but at most it should last one generation (20-30 years) making it 70 years is just obscene.
The situation is not that clear cut. From the linked article:
> This appearance of an unedited version of The French Connection on Disney+ casts doubt on the assumption by some that Disney - which now ‘owns’ the film following its purchase of 20th Century Fox - is to blame for the unannounced cut.
Exactly. They're running a business. If they think they can get higher viewership by modifying the original, whether by recutting or censoring, that's their choice. If I want to watch the original or the edited version, that's my choice. In this case, as TFA points out, it appears there was an accident in which edit was put on the service.
The pearl clutching in the comments here is ridiculous. It's as if these monkey-fighting commenters have never seen a Monday to Friday TV edit.
It’s not the edits that I mind. It’s that they’re made by the rightsholder, who has exclusive control over non‐physical copies, and likely will apply the change to future physical releases.
Say what you will about the sensibilities of the Bowlders, but they didn’t have control over anyone’s access to the original unedited Shakespeare. Ditto for VidAngel, and so on.
Except you often DON'T get the choice to watch the original. It's simply unavailable, so you'd better like the pureed pablum they're letting you consume.
If I want to see the original, I'll look elsewhere.
Except -- good luck finding it (and in a form easily accessible, e.g. streamable).
I get the fact that this is their right and at the end of the day, we can't put a gun to their head and make them not do this. Still, I don't need to pretend that I'm "fine" with it or that it isn't fundamentally stupid.
I can agree with that in principle. The problem, though, is that all the mega corporations (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc.) seem to have a singular hive mind and follow each other on things like this. As soon as Netflix eliminated the "Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" episode of Community, Hulu followed suit and did the same.
All of this erodes your actual freedom to "look elsewhere" as the places you have to look become fewer and harder to find, and are sometimes actively shut out by other platforms like EBay and Amazon.
Even with a "if you don't like it don't buy it" attitude you still acknowledge that this should have clear labelling that this isn't the original product right?
Otherwise how can consumers know they won't like it before they buy it?
