A group of protestors are fightng back against Music and Movie
industry plans to ban the sale and use of CD/DVD-RW, VCRs, Ipods, Tivo and even tape
recorders. Savebetamax.org is organizing a call-in day to Congress on September 14 to oppose
new legislation that would undermine the Betamax decision (INDUCE Act). They are accepting
registrations now.
Regular MegaGames readers will be familiar with the, music and
movie industry-backed, efforts to overturn a court decision which over 15 years ago made it
possible for people to own VCRs. The so-called Betamax decision was a Supreme Court decision
that made the Betamax and all other VCRs legal. In Sony vs. Universal (known as the Betamax
decision) the Court ruled that because VCRs have legitimate uses, the technology is legal,
even if some people use it to copy movies. Of course, the movie industry was lucky it lost
the case against VCRs, because home video soon became Hollywood's largest source of
revenue. And the freedom to use and develop new technology that was protected by the Betamax
decision set the stage for the incredible growth in computer technology we've seen in the
last few decades.
The Betamax ruling is the only thing that protects your right to
own a VCR, tape recorder, CD-burner, DVD-burner, iPod, or TiVo. It's that important. But
new legislation that's being pushed through the Senate by lobbyists for the music and movie
industries would override the Betamax decision and create a huge liability for any business
that makes products which can copy sound or video. This legislation (formerly known as the
INDUCE Act) would essentially give Hollywood veto power over a huge range of new
technologies. And if they get this power, they'll definitely use it: just as they tried to
stomp out the VCR in the 70's and 80's, the music and movie industries want to force all
content to go through their own restricted channels.
