Copyright Battles Are About Controlling New Technologies 
 
Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 10:54:53 -0500 (CDT)


http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080521/article_main.php?sid=20080521/0945301189

Copyright Battles Are About Controlling New Technologies

Copyright guru William Patry 
<williampatry.blogspot.com/2008/05/harvey-schein-and-vcr.html> has a 
really interesting post remembering Harvey 
Schein,<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/technology/15schein.html> the 
man who oversaw the American launch of the Betamax VCR as head of Sony's 
American division. That was, of course, the product that produced the 
famous Sony decision upholding the legality of the VCR and its "record" 
button 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Corp._of_America_v._Universal_City_Studios,_Inc.. 
The Betamax precedent is widely seen as a foundation of the modern 
consumer electronics industry because it gives manufacturers confidence 
that they can build useful media tools without worrying about liability 
should their customers use the tools to infringe copyright.

Patry mentions an aspect of the case that I hadn't realized before: 
MCA/Universal, the lead plaintiff, wasn't just worried that the VCR owners 
would tape shows rather than watching re-runs. It was also planning to 
release a laser disc technology called Disco Vision. MCA/Universal 
apparently worried that a successful Betamax VCR would have undercut the 
market for laser discs. Schein is quoted as saying "I don't think it was 
accidental that the company that took the lead in fighting the 
videocassette held all the patents on the videosdisc."

This will sound eerily familiar to anyone familiar with more recent 
copyright controversies.  For more than three decades, Hollywood and the 
recording industry have consistently tried to use copyright law to stop 
any technology they didn't control. In 1992, the music industry persuaded 
Congress to mandate cumbersome DRM for digital audio formats, stunting the 
development of that technology. In 1998, the music industry unsuccessfully 
tried to sue the MP3 player out of existence.  Also in 1998, at the behest 
of the copyright lobby Congress enacted the DMCA, which gave content 
creators unprecedented control over the design of technological devices. 
Hollywood has used the DMCA to effectively outlaw set-top boxes that act 
as DVD jukeboxes.

Of course, in every one of these cases, the copyright lobby's arguments 
have focused on the threat of "piracy." But when they've won, the 
practical result has been to give content creators the power to control 
the evolution of media devices. And when Hollywood and the record labels 
control technological progress, the results aren't 
pretty.<http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070307/193725.shtml>