Bill DeMain
How Mister Rogers Saved the VCR
by Bill DeMain - January 9, 2012 - 12:41 PM

In 1984, a landmark case laid down a controversial law regarding technology and copyright infringement. Here’s a look back at the “Betamax Case,” including the role Mister Rogers played in the Supreme Court’s decision.

FRED PROUSER/REUTERS/Landov

For many years in the pre-DVD, pre-streaming era, the Betamax, Sony’s prototype videotape player-recorder, was a punch line. A piece of technology that was quickly superseded by the VCR VHS, it limped along in the shadows for two decades. And yet, it was the Betamax that gave name to a court case that has played a pivotal role in both technological progress and copyright law over the last thirty years.

Like many other cool electronic products, the Betamax came from Japan. In late 1975, it was introduced to the U.S. by Sony, who touted its ability to “time-shift” television programming. In an era when most viewers still had to get up off the couch to change channels manually, this innovation was as futuristic as it sounded. Record a TV show right off the air? Are you kidding?

If the public was wowed by the idea, the major entertainment corporations were not. Universal Studios and Walt Disney Productions filed a lawsuit in 1976 to halt the sale of the Betamax, claiming that film and TV producers would lose millions of dollars from unauthorized duplication and distribution of their copyrighted content.

When the case finally went to trial in 1979, the U. S. District court ruled in favor of Sony, stating that taping programs for entertainment or time-shifting was fair use, and did not infringe on copyright. Further, there was no proof that the practice did any economic harm to the television or motion picture industry.

But Universal, unhappy with the verdict, appealed in 1981, and the ruling was reversed. Keep in mind that up until the arrival of the Betamax, movie studios had received a cut of the box office or fee whenever one of their films was shown. Now suddenly here was a rapidly expanding scenario that undermined that structure. And in this scenario was the seed of so much that would follow over the next thirty years, right through today’s ongoing battles over P2P file sharing and illegal streaming sites.

Mister Rogers Goes to Washington

With large sums of money and copyright ownership at stake, the Betamax case arrived at the Supreme Court in 1983. By this point, nearly 50 percent of all homes in America had a VCR (VHS replaced Betamax, mainly because its tapes had longer recording capability) and sales of videocassettes were competing with theatrical box office. Universal Studios vs. Sony Corporation of America, nicknamed the “Betamax Case,” was argued for a year. It was a trial of extremes. On one hand, you had Jack Valenti, the head of the Motion Picture Association of America, yelling about the “savagery and ravages” of the VCR, and comparing its effect on his industry to that of the Boston Strangler on a woman home alone. On the other you had the testimony from TV’s genial kids’ show host Mr. Rogers. Defending the VCR, he said:

“I have always felt that with the advent of all of this new technology that allows people to tape the ‘Neighborhood’ off-the-air … they then become much more active in the programming of their family’s television life. Very frankly, I am opposed to people being programmed by others. My whole approach in broadcasting has always been ‘You are an important person just the way you are. You can make healthy decisions’ … I just feel that anything that allows a person to be more active in the control of his or her life, in a healthy way, is important.”

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Sony and cited Rogers’ comments: “He testified that he had absolutely no objection to home taping for noncommercial use and expressed the opinion that it is a real service to families to be able to record children’s programs and to show them at appropriate times.”

The decision set two major precedents. The first upheld the original decision — recording a broadcast program for later viewing, is fair use. The second was, and still is, controversial — that the manufacturer of a device or technology that can be used for copyright infringement but also has “substantial non-infringing uses,” can’t be held liable for copyright violations by those who use it. It’s kind of technology’s version of “don’t shoot the messenger.”

The same points of law would reemerge two decades later in cases against file-sharing sites Napster and Grokster (in the latter, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously against them for trading copyrighted material). Of course, despite the popularity of legal movie and TV streaming sites like Netflix and Hulu, file sharing continues. Whether it can be, or should be, stopped is a subject for another day. But it’s worth remembering that all the manufacturers of technology capable of copyright infringing (from computers to iPhones to the TiVo DVR) continue to sell their wares without fear of lawsuits because of the once-laughed-at Betamax.

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Comments (18)

  1. Um, a “Betamax” is a “VCR”, as in Video Cassette Recorder. What you mean to say is “VHS” replaced Beta as the dominant format, even though it was technically inferior.

    Semantics aside, I wonder if Unversal and the other short-sighted Hollywood studios ever bother to thank Sony for now a huge piece of their revenues come from home video.

    posted by James on 1-9-2012 at 1:15 pm

  2. I think the popularity of Netflix and Hulu should show these producers that if they want to get rid of illegal file-sharing then the easiest way to do that is to provide a means for the consumer to get their product more reliably and conveniently than pirating.

    I mean, I COULD spend hours upon hours finding, downloading, converting, and maybe re-downloading (if it’s incomplete or crappy quality) torrents of shows or movies I want to watch, but is all that time spent REALLY worth it if Netflix has it and the service is only $8 for the whole month?

    posted by Bert on 1-9-2012 at 1:17 pm

  3. I second James’ remarks. “VHS” is what replaced Betamax which is, itself, a VCR. Reminds me of when people used to come in to the retail store where I worked and ask if we had a “VCR player”. Of course, they meant a “VCP”.

    To the article, there’s a huge difference between putting a show on tape to watch later and putting music or movies on a site where millions of people can download it for free.

    posted by Jeff on 1-9-2012 at 1:21 pm

  4. It wasn’t just the longer recording capabilities of VHS that made them the clear winner over Betamax, they were also cheaper. Of course with the lower price came lower quality, but that really didn’t bother anyone because the average TV sets of the day just wouldn’t have shown a noticeable difference.

    Another reason for the rise of VHS was the porn industry. They quickly realized an entirely new revenue stream of home video and with the lower costs to produce VHS, it became the overwhelming choice of those studios, and with all those customers looking for non-porn content, well those customers already owned a VHS VCR, so the film industry as a whole moved there.

    The first VCR for home use came before Betamax, Phillips released a home VCR (yes, VCR was the format, not VHS) in 1972, Betamax came about in 1975 with VHS coming after that.

    For those young enough not to remember the format war and thinking why the length of recording time was so important, I’ve got three more letters for you in this alphabet soup—NFL. Anyone who wanted to record a football game to watch later needed the longer tapes VHS allowed for.

    posted by Wayne Stevens on 1-9-2012 at 1:36 pm

  5. Wasn’t there some of the same issues with the music industry and black cassettes / 8 tracks?

    posted by DaveP on 1-9-2012 at 5:15 pm

  6. My only issue is with your comparison of “don’t shoot the messenger”.

    The image that came into my mind was the same gun lovers use, “You wouldn’t sue Chrysler if a drunk driver kills someone.”

    I think that would be more appropriate.

    posted by xanderjones on 1-9-2012 at 5:17 pm

  7. wayne makes a great point about the porn industry. they are a quiet driver of technology. while they have not invented any of the technological innovations of the last 30 + years they have always been early and skilled adopters. dvd, the internet, and 3d are a few others that come to mind.
    on another note, how awesome is mr. rogers? no we don’t need rich corporations making decisions about how we consume our entertainment. yes we can make intelligent, informed decisions on our own.

    posted by chris on 1-9-2012 at 9:01 pm

  8. The porn industry also helped settle the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray debate. When Vivid signed on with Blu-Ray, I knew HD-DVD’s days were numbered.

    And lo…

    posted by Pedantic Pat on 1-10-2012 at 12:35 am

  9. This is great. I use “time-shifting” technology today to record Mr. Rogers Neighborhood for my daughter. The reason is exactly as he said. There is only one PBS station that broadcasts his show and it’s once a week at 5:30 am. There are timeless lessons to learn from this man.

    posted by Joe on 1-10-2012 at 2:29 pm

  10. I looked for years for the source of Valenti’s notoriously idiotic and short-sighted Congressional testimony and finally found it – http://cryptome.org/hrcw-hear.htm. Anyway, it’s shocking how stupid he really was about VCRs. Yes I understand he had a job to do to try to “protect” the film industry and the industry still could not grasp the value of home viewing of movies. It certainly wouldn’t be long after this testimony before we had video stores on every corner and most people had cheap VCRs. Had he succeeded he would have denied the movie industry many many billions of dollars of VHS tape sales.

    posted by boethius on 1-10-2012 at 3:34 pm

  11. As A side note:

    I have a Panasonic brochure that came with an audio cassette player. Among many products there is reel to reel, color video tape recorders for “recording your favorite shows for later viewing.” the brochure is from 1971.

    posted by Tdave on 1-10-2012 at 10:31 pm

  12. Mister Rogers was my hero as a child, and now he is my hero as an adult.

    posted by Tom on 1-11-2012 at 3:22 am

  13. These people are all idiots. Try selling something real. These movies and music can be coppied easy so why not realize what you are selling is crap. Cars. Machines. You can’t just download machines or food. You have to create laws that make dumb stuff illegal. Its the modern witch hunt. They just want power over your lives. For what to hear oops I did it again. Seriously. I hope people pirate the fuck out of your stuff and your whole system collapses and people ask themselves why we are giving u control over our lives.

    posted by j on 1-13-2012 at 11:20 am

  14. VHS replaced BetaMax because Sony wouldn’t allow Adult filmmakers to put adult movies on Beta. VHS allowed it. So, pornography caused Betamax to fail. Simple as that.

    posted by Curtis on 1-13-2012 at 11:48 am

  15. Great article, and good comments too (mostly.)

    Mr. Rogers brings tha hammer! Love his quote. It’s perfect representation of self-esteem and self-reliance.

    I’d love to hear it repeated today and listen to certain cable-network news viewers flipping out calling him Socialist! Don’t laugh! Those folks are also prone to seeing cartoon characters as gay, etc.

    Thanks again, mental_floss!

    posted by Lars on 1-17-2012 at 12:51 pm

  16. “Semantics aside, I wonder if Unversal and the other short-sighted Hollywood studios ever bother to thank Sony for now a huge piece of their revenues come from home video.”

    Nope. Look at SOPA/PIPA. They haven’t learned at all. The internet is now the Boston Strangler. We need Mr. Rogers again…

    posted by Dave on 1-31-2012 at 2:31 pm

  17. Betamax only failed as a home format. Betamax (or upgrades and variations of) was/were the dominant professional video tape format for decades.

    posted by Ms Rogers on 2-15-2012 at 1:05 pm

  18. My understanding of why VHS wiped Beta format off the video store shelves, is that Sony did not allow any other manufactures to use their system, while VHS (Japan Victor Corp.) allowed any manufacture to use their system.

    Interestingly, for professional use Sony tape formats dominate with Digital Betacam, HDCAM, HDCAM-SR, etc.

    posted by Jack M on 2-19-2012 at 2:48 am

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