Sony Corporation of America et al. v. Universal City Studios, Inc., et al.
Petitioner: Sony Corp. Respondent: Universal City Studios, Inc.
KEY TERMS:
Fair Use:
Have valid reasons for infringe another’s copyright under certain situations that are legal without permission from the copyright owner. It must be determined that the use is only for non-commercial or nonprofit purposes by considering “the nature of the copyrighted work”, “the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole”, and “the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work” (Copyright Act). Examples include collections in libraries open to the public or related to academic research.
Universal City Studios, Inc.. It cleared Sony of any liability from “contributory” infringement. While Betamax recording devices could be used to record copyrighted material, they were meant to be able to record anything, not only copyrighted works. The court reinforced the concept that personal, non-commercial use, even if people saved small libraries of tapes, was acceptable “fair-use” of freely available entertainment available over the public
Making a single copy for time-shifting is hard to be considered as productive use, because productive use must create extra value for the public (even more so than the original).
Supporting cases for the dissenting opinion:
Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus, Inwood Laboratories, Inc. v. Ives Laboratories, Inc.
DATA:
Useful to figure out if owning a VTR has any effect on the copyright market!
75.4% of VTR owners used it to record shows to watch later at least half of the time
96% of the Betamax owners used it to record programs shown when people weren’t able to watch
55.8% of VTR owners had 10 or less tapes
Over a month, 70.4% of recorded programs had been viewed only one time, while of those, 57.9% were not going to be watched again
81.9% of VTR owners watched the just as much, or even more, television as before ownership
83.2% of VTR owners still go to movie theaters the same amount as before owning a VTR
PRECEDENTS:
District Court:
Columbia Broadcasting System , Inc. v. Democratic National Committee:
Granted television the same protection of freedom of speech that newspapers
Today is the day of the trial for the Faden vs Walt Disney, I am Mister Faden's attorney. This should be an easy case to win, its so obvious that Mister Faden’s video was fair, that doesn't mean I won’t take it seriously, just that i am confident. When i arrive at the courtroom my client is already seated along with most of the jury and the judge. As i am sitting there i can’t help but to think about how ironic this entire case is, the video itself was about copyright, its almost as if he wanted this to happen. Its time to make our opening statements, defendants are up first. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my client is innocent, and has not committed any crimes against Disney. As i am sure you know, Mister Faden made a video concerning
- 15 year olds were watching 9-12 hours of television a week, more than any other
"Schenck v. United States. Baer v. Same.." LII. Cornell University Law school, n.d. Web. 6 Jan. 2014. .
...entertainment industry is saying that intellectual property is just as real as physical property. The digital age faces a true balancing act a digital dilemma if you will- the right to freedom of expression while protecting intellectual property.
... report also explains that illegal downloading of movies and TV have nearly halved “with 65 million film and 55 million TV shows illegally downloaded in 2012, compared to 125 million and 135 million respectively in 2008.”
The market penetration of TiVo has been very poor. Fourteen months after its introduction only 0.04% penetration has been achieved out of the total of 102million TV watching population. This is also reflected in the poor revenue position of the company. Exhibit 3 shows that the company recorded a loss every quarter since the introduction of the product in September 1999 and has been getting worse.
Bretz, Rudy , 1957 “Video Tape: A TV Revolution” The Quarterly of Film Radio and Television , Vol. 11, No. 4 pp. 399-415 Published by: University of California Press Article Stable URL: www.jstor.org/stable/1210000
United States v. Sell, 343 F.3d 950, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 26859 (8th Cir., Sept. 2, 2003)
TiVo has diversified itself in the industry by promoting their system as user friendly and innovated features such as viewing digital photo's wirelessly from a P.C and even a suggestion engine that selects consumer preferences. Marketing seems to be the best competence TiVo has thus far. These unique marketing techniques have made TiVo the most well known DVR and set the standard in the market. Many consumers acknowledge DVR's as TiVo's.
Determining the right target segment requires an analysis of the customer, company and competition (fig. 2). TiVo's customer is defined by unmet needs in the market. While TV is one of the most ensconced and ritualistic elements of contemporary American life, there are still aspects of television viewing that do not fulfill customer needs. An estimated 68% of Americans complained that they felt "widowed" by their loved one during the Fall television season because their spouses were chained to their televisions during primetime from 8pm to 11pm. Additionally, parents expressed a difficult time getting their children to do homework during key television programming times. In general, this is evidence that consumers want greater control over their television consumption habits. Analysis of the TiVo Corporation reveals their core competencies, which include proprietary software, national distribution through established retail outlets such as Best Buy, Circuit City and Sears and product co-branding with trusted electronics giants Philips and Sony.
The article, “Keeping Up with the Trumps,” discusses how television and the amount of television a person watches, affects a person’s spending habits. I was not surprised at all to find out that there is a correlation between a person’s spending and the amount of television they watch. Because many Americans are always wanting the nicest and best new things, it is easy to fall for product placements in movies and shows, and it is easy to see commercials and want to imminently go out and buy the products the commercials are selling. This is because, today we label people based on what they own, so people feel included to spend to keep up with the in crowd. A thought that cross my mind while reading this article, is how things might have changed in recent years, now that many families own DVRs. Now when people tune in to watch shows and movies, they can record them ahead of time and skip commercials. I would be curious to see how the results would change if this study was redone
They go to it but not for it. I think so, because most of the times movie even doesn’t play the role. I mean, that if there is a line to a ticket office, or one movie is sold out, people usually easily change their minds on choose another movie, or don’t wait in the line, and just go somewhere else.
A while back, I wrote about the death of “TV Time.” This concept was simple—people were spending less time watching TV while sitting on their couches, slave to some arbitrary schedule. Perhaps the article should have been named, “The TV Guide is Dead.” Oh well. Regardless, it got the point across. Less people were watching according to schedule. They wanted to watch when they wanted to watch.
Before television existed people had to depend on Radio stations to receive their little bit of entertainment and news. But in 1878, the invention of TV began. The first TV made didn’t look anything like the way TV’s look today. It was a mechanical camera with a large spinning disc attached to it (Kids Work). But as over the years, of course, inventions of different TV’s progressed and by the 20th century about 90 percent of our population had a TV in their household (MGHR). Television today is mainly used for people take a break from their life by relaxing and enjoying some entertainment.
Streaming video content over the internet continues to grow in popularity with consumers for a variety of reasons, including the widespread availability of high speed internet, attractive video content, easy to use video streaming devices and the rising cost of cable television service. Some consumers use streaming video to enhance or supplement the typical offerings available from their local cable provider. Others take a more extreme approach and use streaming video as a means to eliminate the need for a cable television subscription altogether. Presently consumers cancelling their cable TV subscriptions are still considered a minority of all subscribers; nevertheless their steadily increasing numbers have earned the moniker of “cord cutters.” Those looking to ditch cable TV can also find a growing number of online resources that will ease their transition to cheaper online television viewing.