Following up on a recent Boing Boing post about a 1981 news clip in which ABC News anchor Ted Koppel hurtles through space while exploring home video legalities, BB reader Bill Simmon says,
YouTube also has an entire 60 Minutes segment from 1978 that’s all about video piracy in which Harry Reasoner investigates the (then) new-fangled videotape technology and what it will mean to the content owners when any Tom, Dick or Harry can copy any movie or TV show for free. The piece features a wonderfully gruff and self-righteous Jack Valenti, who’s frothing over piracy didn’t change in tone much over the next 30 years despite the movie industry raking in gobs of cash from the home video market.
A memorable quote, from Reasoner: “They said it would happen, and it has. The day when you could go to the movies without leaving your living room!”