CommanderFrank
Cat Can't Scratch It
- Joined
- May 9, 2000
- Messages
- 75,399
If you are one of the millions that have in the past or still record copyrighted material, you should be aware of the background story of how that privilege came to be. The US Supreme Court reached a decision on January 17th, 1984 giving citizens the right to record copyrighted material, in this case it was Sony’s new Betamax technology that brought all of this about.
In the years since the ruling, it's been notoriously hard to figure out how home consumption of copyrighted work has impacted the entertainment industry. The rise of the VCR let Hollywood make more money on home videos than it ever could at box offices.