Word: betamax
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...Asner, head of the Screen Actors Guild But Walt Disney Studios and Universal City Studios could imagine all that and more. When Sony corporation first introduced video cassette recorders (VCR's), the same people who brought you Peter Pan and Donald Duck and his alleged "nephews" hauled Sony, four Betamax retailers, an advertising agency, and an individual Betamax owner into court for copyright infringement...
...easy to see why the studios could fear the new faugled machines. With a Betamax, a devoted fan of Leave It to Beaver could easily tape all of the shows now running in syndication and never have any incentive to keep on watching the reruns. No repeat viewing on I.V.-means no lucrative residuals for the studio and occasionally, for the actors...
Stephen A. Kroft, the lawyer representing Disney and Universal, claimed that Sony effectively "contributed" to copyright infringement since the Betamax could be used for unfair use. Under the fair-use doctrine certain forms of reproduction of copyright material are acceptable--as Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 says: "for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research...
...content merely to suppose that individual Betamax users violate copyright when "time-shifting" certain shows. Kroft went still farther, calling for compensation from Sony and even a ban on Betamax use and sales. Closely questioning Kroft on this logic. Chief Justice Warren Burger asked if photocopying manufacturers would similarly be liable say "if Xerox or another maker advertises that this is a good way to copy books?" Said Kroft: "I would say that a seller of photocopying machines would be liable." In fact, under further questioning Kroft even suggested there would be copyright infringement even if Xerox...
...surely both one's tongue, one's Bic, and one's Betamax can all be used for some fair use--even if only for making home video productions of Junior's Bar Mitzvah. To ask for an injunction banning Betamaxes because the have the potential for abuse seemingly deviates little from the mythical feudal prince who rips out his subjects' tongues. If we cannot ban handguns even with their great and proven potential for abuse, then how absurd to ban VCR's solely for their potential for abuse...