Save Betamax

[pAiNtHeAsS]

Why Save Betamax?

The short version:

We're organizing a call-in day to Congress on September 14 to oppose new legislation that would undermine the Betamax decision (INDUCE Act). Sign up on the right.

Here's why:

The Betamax VCR died more than 15 years ago, but the Supreme Court decision that made the Betamax and all other VCRs legal lived on. 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.

Hollywood is Trying to Kill Betamax

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.

Is Congress Insane?

You might think so at first glance. Voters, technology experts, public interest groups, and electronics manufacturers all oppose these efforts to weaken Betamax. So why is it still happening? Because the major record labels and the movie studios-- the same companies that opposed the Betamax ruling-- make huge donations to the re-election campaigns of the Senators who are sponsoring this legislation. And most members of Congress assume this is a non-controversial issue, off the radar of most voters. If they can please their donors without a big fuss, they will. It's bad policy, but until we start making noise, it's smart politics.

Why We Need a National Call-In Day

We need to make sure Congress hears from the public. There's been plenty of opposition on the internet to the INDUCE Act and its more recent drafts. But this general dissatisfaction hasn't quite come together into a real demonstration of how strongly people feel about protecting the Betamax decision. At Downhill Battle, we've organized people to send faxes to Congress before and there's been lots of emails flying around, but telephone calls take it to the next level. A big, one-day mobilization to swamp these members of Congress with phone calls could make a huge impact on the debate. If you care about keeping Betamax intact but haven't felt compelled to act before, now's the time to get involved. You can sign up on the top right of this page.

Not Convinced? Don't Take Our Word For It.

If you're ready to get involved, go sign up. If you want some more info on the Betamax ruling and what's happening in Congress, here are some really good quotes from filesharing opponents, Mr. Rogers, and Sony's own Corporate Hist
ory, all of them in support of the Betamax decision: Convincing Quotes.

http://www.savebetamax.org/

 

[Hazar]

So what exactly is Betamax?

Or am I just stupid?

 

[pAiNtHeAsS]

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.

betamax was a supreme court decision that made 12 years ago that made VCRs legal i think.

 

[qckbeam]

Betamax tapes and players look like miniature sized VHS tapes and players. They were smaller, and had better quality than VHS tapes, but went out of business for some reason. I actually still have some betamax tapes and a player. I guess betamax came first, and opened the door to home video which in turn opened the door to the things we have today mentioned in that article. I have never heard of the INDUCE Act, but it's a bit frightening to think of what would happen if such a thing were passed.

edit: It's calling to save betamax, but not the technology itself. The site is devoted to saving the court decision known as the betamax decision, not the old tapes/players/etc.

 

[dbsynergy]

Sony made Betamax so you could record stuff on tape. VHS came around and made a bigger tape that you could fit a full length movie on. Sony came around and made LP mode so u could fit one on beta too but that didn't stop VHS from doing the same thing.

Beta had better quality but was restricted to tape size so it flopped.

 

[gh0st]

beta sure as hell isnt as good as a dvd so who cares.

 

[blahblahblah]

Ahhhhh, the powers of legal rulings. If this piece of legislation ever was passed, the US's checks and balances would automatically kick in by somebody filing a lawsuit. I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[Neutrino]

beta sure as hell isnt as good as a dvd so who cares.

Did you read the quote? Because you completely missed the point.

 

[Wraith]

beta sure as hell isnt as good as a dvd so who cares.

... did you just completely miss the point of the entire article?

 

[Wraith]

Did you read the quote? Because you completely missed the point.

weirrdddddd








so neutrino, i guess this makes us best friends now?

 

[JFry]

Hehe are they serious? All I have to say is: let them try. They can't even enforce the laws against stuff like mp3 and movie sharing. What makes them think they will be able to enforce this? All it would do is lead to a larger black market.

 

[CyberSh33p]

making more things illegal only leads to more crimes, especially trivial crap like this

 

[DreamThrall]

making more things illegal only leads to more crimes, especially trivial crap like this

That's an interesting philosophy...

So by that rule of thumb, if we made illegal things legal, the crime rate would dissapear!

The question at hand here isn't really that trivial. It has all sorts of economic implications if you think about it... how many other industries are effected by Hollywood industry? (cd and dvd suppliers, distributors, manufacturers, cd and dvd player manufacturers, online services like cable internet providers, etc etc etc...) All these players stand to lose or gain depending on how this ends up.

 

[Revisedsoul]

that would suck. cuz if it does go through, even thougg the law doesnt affect me. prices will go up in toehr countries to make up for the loss

 

[CyberSh33p]

That's an interesting philosophy...

So by that rule of thumb, if we made illegal things legal, the crime rate would dissapear!

you can't debate that

the point I was trying to make is that people will keep on doing it if they outlaw it, again, especially for stupid crap.

 

[JFry]

Yes and what exactly would they do.. round up all the cd and dvd burners? That is laughable to say the least. All people would need is blank media, which would be imported illegally, possibly next to a large brick of marijuanna.

 

[DreamThrall]

They wouldn't even be able to do that, because there would still be legal uses of writeable CDs and DVDs - they can't stop you from burning legally downloaded mp3s (ie, those that aren't copyrighted, or are offered for free download, like from garageband.com), burning home vids to dvd, data archiving, etc...

The CD and DVD burners aren't really comparable to the copyright issues that arose with BetaMax and VHS. With the tapes, the recording feature served one of two functions: 1) recording within a very expensive (at the time) video camera, or 2) illegally recording TV programs or movies from an existing tape

Since computers are so popular now, there are so many more uses for user-recordable media. If they only had half an argument in the 80's against the tapes, they've got even less of an argument against writeable optical media now.

Then again, I suppose it's all in the way you present it....

Many people own cars. You can use a car to transport yourself or others, but you can also use it to kill someone. Most people use cars for the first purpose...

But an interesting question is this: If the same ratio of auto drivers used their autos for murder as filesharers/CD-R & DVD-R owners used their techonology for illicit purposes, would they ban cars?

Perhaps its not quite the same thing, but you'll have to forgive me as it is almost 3am and I am overtired and rambling. Goodnight.

 

[Brian Damage]

That's an interesting philosophy...

So by that rule of thumb, if we made illegal things legal, the crime rate would dissapear!

Well, yes. Because by legalising everything that was illegal, there would no longer be any crimes or offences. Ergo, the crime rate would plummet. Sure, killing, raping, looting and associated chaotic activities would be rife, but they'd no longer be criminal offences .

Though cybersheep did have a point to a certain extent. Some really frivolous things are illegal. Legalising them would bring them up out of the underground, and into the public eye...