lionel@orphan.DEC (Steve Lionel) (10/01/84)
I don't have the actual ruling, but do have a series of AP newswire stories
that cover the ruling. I'll reproduce the major one here, and give abstracts
of four others. Send me a note if you want a copy of any of these.
Steve Lionel
ARPA: lionel%orphan.DEC@decwrl.ARPA
UUCP: decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-orphan!lionel
MCI: Steve Lionel (177-0623)
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Associated Press Tue 17-JAN-1984 13:41 Scotus-Sony
By JAMES H. RUBIN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The billion-dollar home-video recorder
industry won a major victory today as a narrowly divided Supreme
Court ruled that taping television shows for private use is legal.
In a 5-4 decision, the court said the sale of the increasingly
popular recorders does not violate federal copyright law. The court
also said that using the machines to view television programs at a
later time is not illegal.
The ruling could still be modified in Congress, where both sides
in the dispute have been waging a heavily financed battle.
But, at least for now, the court has removed the posssibility
that video recorder manufacturers would have to pay royalties on
the sale of the machines.
Industry lawyers have said if the Sony Corp., the defendant,
los before the high court, a tax - or royalty - of $100 per
machine and $1 per blank tape could have been added to present
retail prices.
The court said that there is no precedent in federal law to
penalize the video recording industry merely because some owners
might use the machines to tape copyrighted material, such as motion
pictures.
The high court threw out a ruling that home use of the machines
is illegal.
About 9 million machines have been sold. About one in every 10
American families owns one. The video recorders now sell in the
$400 to $800 range.
Sales of the machines, approaching $2 billion now, are expected
to surpass 40 million recorders by 1990.
The Sony Corp., which markets the Betamax recorder, was sued by
Hollywood producers who claimed the machines were being used to
build home motion picture ``libraries.''
The motion picture industry charged that Sony and other
electronics company sold the devices for the primary purpose of
recording copyrighted material.
The suit was filed by Universal City Studios and Walt Disney
Production. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco
ruled in October 1981 that use of the machines violated federal
copyright law.
Spokesmen for Walt Disney and Sony had no immediate comment
pending study of the decision. Universal City spokesman Bob Hadl
said his studio was ``disappointed'' but declined further comment
until the ruling could be analyzed.
The appeals court ordered a federal judge to devise remedies to
compensate for copyright infringement. But that action was
postponed pending the appeal to the Supreme Court.
Justice John Paul Stevens, in his opinion for the court, said
that taping television shows for viewing at a later time does not
violate copyright law.
``One may search the Copyright Act in vain for any sign that the
elected representatives of the millions of people who watch
television every day have made it unlawful to copy a program for
later viewing at home,'' Stevens said.
He added that, ``It may well be that Congress will take a fresh
look at this new technology. ... But it is not our job to apply
laws that have not yet been written.''
The decision did not appear to rule out the possibility that
moton picture producers may sue individual owners of the machines
to try to prove such people are using the machines for illegitimate
purposes.
For example, it might be illegal for a user to tape a motion
picure and charge neighbors to see the movie.
But, as a practical matter, the industry is more likely to press
its case before Congress.
Because the court's decision is an interpretation of what
Congress intended when it amended federal copyright law in 1976,
Congress will be free to undo the court ruling.
On Capitol Hill, Rep. Robert W. Kastenmeier, D-Wis., chairman of
the House Judiciary subcommittee holding hearings on the matter,
said he doubted Congress would subject home taping to provisions of
the copyright law.
Stevens was joined in today's decision by Chief Justice Warren
E. Burger and Justices William J. Brennan, Byron R. White and
Sandra Day O'Connor.
The dissenters were Justices Harry A. Blackmun, Thurgood
Marshall, Lewis F. Powell and William H. Rehnquist.
Blackmun, in his dissenting opinion, said the motion picture
industry deserves to share in the profits from use of the machines
to view television shows at a later time.
``Because time-shifting of the (motion picture) studios'
copyrighted works involves the copying of them, the studios are
entitled to share in the benefits of that new market,'' said
Blackmun.
The case has preoccupied the high court for more than a year. It
heard arguments in the dispute during the court term that ended
last July but issued no ruling and did not give any reason for
postponing its decision until this term.
Additional arguments were presented to the justices in October.
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Associated Press Tue 17-JAN-1984 16:40 Recorders-Ads
Advertisers Fear Viewers Taping Programs Will Skip Commercials
NEW YORK (AP) - Home video recording, which won approval from
the Supreme Court on Tuesday, worries many advertisers who fear
tha more and more viewers will ``fast-forward'' past their
commercials.
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Associated Press Wed 18-JAN-1984 08:22 Scotus-Sony
Battle Over Video Recorders Moves From Court to Congress
WASHINGTON (AP) - The focus now shifts to Congress in the
big-stakes battle to decide whether millions of Americans may have
to pay extra to use increasingly popular home video recorders to
tape television shows.
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Associated Press Wed 18-JAN-1984 08:23 Sony-Hollywood
Video Surcharges To Be Sought, Film Industry Officials Say
HOLLYWOOD (AP) - Film industry officials, calling a Supreme
Court ruling that home videotaping is legal ``a major blow,'' say
they'll ask Congress to slap on surcharges of at least 50 cents for
every blank tape cassette and $100 for each video recorder.