VCR case empirically proves.

Adam Clark Estes, “How copyright lawsuits could kill OpenAI,” Vox, 01-18-2024, https://www.vox.com/technology/2024/1/18/24041598/openai-new-york-times-copyright-lawsuit-napster-google-sony

The case for innovation

While it’s easy to compare the Times case to the Napster one, the better precedent involves the VCR, according to McSherry.

In 1984, a years-long copyright case between Sony and Universal Studios over the practice of using VCRs to record TV shows made it all the way to the United States Supreme Court. The studio alleged that Sony’s Betamax video tapes could be used for copyright infringement, while Sony’s lawyers argued that taping shows was fair use, which is the doctrine that allows copyrighted material to be reused without permission or payment.

Sony won. The judge’s decision, which has never been overturned, said that if machines, including the VCR, have non-infringing uses then the company that makes them can’t be held liable if customers use them to infringe upon copyrights.

The entertainment industry was forever changed by this case. The VCR let people watch whatever was broadcast on TV whenever they wanted, and in just a few years, Hollywood studios actually ended up seeing their profits grow in the VCR era. The machine got people more excited about watching movies, and they watched more of them, both at home and in theaters.

“If you have to go to copyright owners for permission for technological innovation, you’re going to get a lot less innovation,” McSherry told Vox.