U.S. Supreme Court ruled that... home video recorders to tape television programs was legal (tweet)

[IcyPeas]

Interesting. I don't remember this being a Supreme Court thing. I guess it was a big deal for the movie companies.

On January 17, 1984, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the sale and use of home video recorders to tape television programming for later, private viewing was legal

Link to tweet

[Polybius]

1. What was the vote?

Unanimous?

[IcyPeas]

2. 5-4

[Polybius]

7. Wow, we dodged a bullet on that one!

Imagine how difficult our lives would have been had one Justice switched sides. Would have been one of the worst decisions in history. Yikes!

[Ferrets are Cool]

3. I remember that

It was a big deal.

[regnaD kciN]

6. It was very big...

Of course, there was later a compromise made wherein there was a "tax" on all VCRs and blank tapes paid to the film/television studios, in exchange for not trying to get Congress to rewrite the copyright laws.

And, of course, there's the irony of it being described as a victory for Sony and setback for the motion-picture studios, since now Sony is one of the largest studios in the world.

[Wicked Blue]

4. That's why the corporations came up with technologies that couldn't be recorded nt

[Archae]

5. Jack Valenti led the charge against recorders...

It was obvious the big studios wanted to block video recorders since they had a monopoly on times broadcast for decades, and suddenly people could watch when THEY wanted to, not when the studios said they would be forced to.

And we could skip past the &%$#@!!! ads.

My DVR now is light-years ahead of the old VCR's, and the studios realized their stupidity was trying to block sale$ of pre-recorded movies, shows, etc.

Nowadays I can get anything, just about on DVD or through streaming.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

8. I taped things all the time off of TV when I was a kid

Had no idea that there was actually a SCOTUS case about it.