Video Piracy in 1979

[Talon87]

Somebody posted this on ANN in response to discussion about fansubs:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GZzTy98QIvI
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mrjabH_WIdI

The videos are from a 1979 broadcast of the American television news journal 60 Minutes and, while dragged out a bit, are well worth the watch -- especially for the middle of the first link, where you'll get to meet the head of the MPAA in 1979.

What's interesting is that, even knowing how history played out in the end, I could not help but be sucked in by the documentary and feel an urgent fear of VHS recordings threatening the movie industry's profits and therefore ability to produce quality films for us to continue to enjoy. Naturally that fear is irrational given what we know to be true, but I think it's for that very reason that this video serves as a good reminder that a lot of fearmongering takes place in IP, copyright, and piracy debates.

I also found it incredible that -- technically speaking! -- using a VCR's record feature to record TV shows is illegal but that the FBI chooses not to prosecute unless you attempt to sell those recordings for a profit. Crazy. I was always under the impression growing up -- from friends and family to classmates and teachers -- that recording TV programs was a civil right protected by law and that only profiteering off of recordings was in any way, shape, or form illegal. It's simply marvelous to me that the behavior was illegal to start off with but was so ubiquitous that the legal authorities were powerless to stop it.

Granted, I don't know if the laws were changed between 1979 and the 1990s in order to officially legalize at-home recordings of television broadcasts, so perhaps my childhood beliefs are actually right after all. This video has given me a mild incentive to do some digging around in order to find out what the real story is -- to find out if even in the year 2008 the use of a VCR to record television broadcasts is technically illegal.

[Doppleganger]

Reproduction of any kind of copyrighted material without paying a fee to the copyright owner (without special permission) is illegal, regardless of the medium; DVDs, VHS, books and games.

[Talon87]

I believe the law states that you may photocopy up to 10% of any printed work before you have to either (a) pay for the work or (b) contact the copyright holder and/or publisher for special permission. I learned this at Purdue on two occasions:

1- when making photocopies of a Japanese textbook in order to help students study and being informed by the Purdue photocopy assistant that I could only copy up to 10%

2- when a friend of a friend at Boston University cajoled me after I scanned 20 pages from a book on how the feminist movement in Wisconsin ruined one man's relationship with his wife and daughter after the daughter was brainwashed into believing that both he and his brother had raped her when she was a child.

In both cases, I scanned less than 10% of the books, but the number "10%" was quoted on these two separate occasions by two completely unrelated people.

[Lady Kuno]

Wow they were going to make taping a show and watching it later illegal?

[Doppleganger]

Originally Posted by Xuande

I believe the law states that you may photocopy up to 10% of any printed work before you have to either (a) pay for the work or (b) contact the copyright holder and/or publisher for special permission. I learned this at Purdue on two occasions:

1- when making photocopies of a Japanese textbook in order to help students study and being informed by the Purdue photocopy assistant that I could only copy up to 10%

2- when a friend of a friend at Boston University cajoled me after I scanned 20 pages from a book on how the feminist movement in Wisconsin ruined one man's relationship with his wife and daughter after the daughter was brainwashed into believing that both he and his brother had raped her when she was a child.

In both cases, I scanned less than 10% of the books, but the number "10%" was quoted on these two separate occasions by two completely unrelated people.

I don't think that applies to any printed work. Photo-copying a single page (a 'chart') out of a music anthology is considered copyright infringement; schools get away with it either by not reporting that they're pirating the music or reporting to their districts with the purchase of each book, and paying a special discount fee to the publisher for permission to print copies for educational purposes.

And that book #2 sounds horribly interesting; I've always imagined books chiding the feminist movement existed somewhere beyond the reach of even college folk, and here you've claimed to have read part of one!