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May 30, 2002

[Rants]
A long time ago, in an industry far, far away

We are going to bleed and bleed and hemorrhage, unless this Congress at least protects one industry that is able to retrieve a surplus balance of trade and whose total future depends on its protection from the savagery and the ravages of this machine.

The year is 1982. The inimitable Jack Valenti, president of the MPAA, is before a House panel on "Home Recording of Copyrighted Works". What does he tell them? New technology threatens to destroy the movie industry. Congress must act now!

The machine? The videocassette recorder.

For the first time ever, Valenti's historic testimony, in which he called the VCR a "Boston strangler" (as well as an "avalanche" and a "tidal wave"), is on-line in its entirety. (Thanks to Cryptome for scanning and publishing it, and to hard-working paralegals, who know who they are, for tracking down the original.)

Reading the 1982 testimony side-by-side with recent Valenti testimony and interviews is an invaluable source of historical context. It's an essential supplement to the Betamax case; Valenti's remarks came in between the 9th Circuit decision in favor of the movie studios and the subsequent Supreme Court decision in favor of Sony.

Astute copyright history fans will also note that Bruce Lehman was present at this hearing. Lehman went on to do as much as anyone else to return to copyright holders the sort of control the Supreme Court denied them in the Betamax case. Today, he's President of the International Intellectual Property Institute.

Posted by Seth Schoen at 10:59 PM