Word: betamax
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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After a five-week trial in Los Angeles, Federal District Court Judge Warren J. Ferguson last week acquitted Betamax...
...ruled that "noncommercial home-use recording of material broadcast over the public air waves" is "fair use." The court also rejected the plaintiffs' claim that widespread use of VTRs would cause a decline in actual television viewing. Betamax owners will simply "rearrange" their viewing hours, said Judge Ferguson; they will "play their tapes when there is nothing on television they wish to see and no movie they want to attend." Moreover, the court noted, production of television programs by the plaintiffs, Universal City Studios, a wholly owned subsidiary of MCA Inc., and Walt Disney Productions, "is more profitable than...
...view too. "There is no way, nor should there be," he said, "for plaintiffs to limit the availability of alternatives to television viewing. Games, books, movies -even people-all divert potential viewers from the television set. It is impossible for plaintiffs or this court to isolate the diversion of Betamax from that of these competitors...
...competition is already sizable. Some 800,000 units are in use in the U.S., manufactured by Matsushita and eight or nine other companies in addition to Sony. The new Betamax now costs $1,250 ($900 at discount), but the price is likely to drop. It is an appealing gadget. Quite apart from its immediate use, taping programs the viewer might overwise miss, VTR cassettes can record for endless home reruns the occasional classic series such as Shakespeare's plays or historic news events like the saturation coverage of the Pope's visit to the U.S. And there...
While the TV networks were not party to the Betamax suit, VTRs also pose obvious difficulties for broadcasters. The Nielsen ratings have already adjusted their research procedures to allow for increased VTR recording and hence delayed viewing. In any event, home use of VTRs has passed the point of no return. As U.C.L.A. law school's Melville Nimmer, an authority on copyright, points out, "It's fundamentally a part of the whole technological revolution. The old copyright system of control at the source is breaking down. It's impossible to turn time back -or smash the machines...