ABSTRACT
Billboard, in its January 6, 1990 issue, dubbed the 1980's 'the video decade'. The majority of American families acquired a video cassette recorder. Hollywood films became the backbone of the prerecorded cassette market from the outset, when Twentieth Century-Fox leased 50 titles to Magnetic Video in 1977. Despite their early reservations, the film studios ultimately reaped a financial bonanza as home video revenues grew to twice that of theaters by 1990. Industry insiders supported this view. Producer Herbert Ross noted, 'I think of home video as movies premiering all over again. It's the most exciting thing that's ever happened to the motion picture industry'. The film studios, zealously trying to protect what they perceived to be their copyright prerogatives, sought to control the rental process. The intelligence and sanity of the film industry was also subject to question in the landmark Universal v. Sony case in which Universal and Disney sued Sony for breach of copyright.
