When Does Complete Copying of Copyrighted Works for Purposes Other than for Profit or Sale Constitute Fair Use? An Economic Analysis of the Sony Betamax and Williams a Wilkins Cases

During the last decade, the Supreme Court has had difficulty deciding the two leading cases involving copyright fair use. ¹ Moreover, the economic analysis in this article demonstrates that both cases were decided incorrectly by the appellate courts. In the much publicized Universal City Studios v. Sony Corp. of America (Betamax) case, ² producers of televised feature films claimed that home video recording of their copyrighted works ³ constitutes copyright infringement and that manufacturers of such recording equipment are guilty of contributory infringement. ⁴ The manufacturer-defendants contended that home video recording is within the fair use provision of the copyright law, ⁵ which allows nonowners of copyrighted material to use such material in a reasonable manner notwithstanding lack of consent by the owner. ⁶ In reversing the district court, the Ninth Circuit incorrectly held that home video recording is not fair use and thus constitutes copyright infringement. ⁷ Last Term, the Supreme Court postponed its review of the Ninth Circuit's decision and rescheduled it for the current Term. ⁸ The Supreme Court recently reversed the Ninth Circuit's decision. ⁹