Rental library firms purchase items such as films and games for short term rentals to customers. The useful lives of these items range from about six months to two years.
Are these items inventory? If so, cash paid to acquire rental library items is an operating cash flow.
Or, are the items noncurrent assets? If so, cash paid is an investing cash flow.
Prior to 2006, some firms in the rental library business chose the second alternative, classifying the cash paid for rental library purchases as an investing cash outflow. Practice has now changed, however, to classify these cash payments as part of operations. Note that the total cash paid by the firm has not changed, but cash from operations was larger under the pre 2006 classification than afterwards.