ABSTRACT
This chapter examines resistance to a new technology that threatened a segment of the creative community. It also examines legal campaigns by the film industry to control the unauthorized reproduction of audiovisual works following the introduction of the home videocassette recorder. The chapter describes some aspects of the legal context governing creative works. Conflict over the use of creative works flows from discordant principles embodied in the law. Works of art and literature are protected by copyright law. The defendants countered that off-air recording for home use was not infringement. Although copyright law did not address off-air recording expressly, the legislative history of the 1976 Copyright Act showed that Congress did not intend to prohibit the home recording of either sound recordings or audiovisual works. In the mid-1970s, film piracy became increasingly visible. Newspapers and magazines began to run stories on the nature and scope of piracy as well as on the apprehension of pirates and seizure of pirated works.
