It's almost a truism in the tech world that copyright owners reflexively oppose new inventions that do (or might) disrupt existing business models. But how many techies actually know what rightsholders have said and written for the last hundred years on the subject?
The anxious rhetoric around new technology is really quite shocking in its vehemence, from claims that the player piano will destroy musical taste and the "national throat" to concerns that the VCR is like the "Boston strangler" to claims that only Hollywood's premier content could make the DTV transition a success. Most of it turned out to be absurd hyperbole, but it's interesting to see just how consistent the words and the fears remain across more than a century of innovation and a host of very different devices.
So here they are, in their own words—the copyright holders who demanded restrictions on player pianos, photocopiers, VCRs, home taping, DAT, MP3 players, Napster, the DVR, digital radio, and digital TV.
The gramophone and the player piano
In 1906, famous composer John Philip Sousa took to Appleton's Magazine to pen an essay decrying the latest piratical threat to his livelihood, to the entire body politic, and to "musical taste" itself. His concern? The player piano and the gramophone, which stripped the life from real, human, soulful live performances.
The gramophone and the player piano
In 1906, famous composer John Philip Sousa took to Appleton's Magazine to pen an essay decrying the latest piratical threat to his livelihood, to the entire body politic, and to "musical taste" itself. His concern? The player piano and the gramophone, which stripped the life from real, human, soulful live performances.
The photocopier, invented by Xerox, became a target. In 1972, Time quoted UCLA law professor Melville Nimmer as saying, "the day may not be far off when no one need purchase books" thanks to the sinister uses of the copier. But books were hard to copy, and the process cost money. Academic journals, though, were high-priced, had low subscriber bases, and were stuffed with easily copiable articles. The copier thus represented a particular threat to these publications, several of which filed lawsuits.
Free TV is still with us today, the VCR made billions for Hollywood, and no one was strangled, covered by an avalanche, or drowned beneath a tidal wave. But even as the VCR became a profit center both for Hollywood and the consumer electronics firms that made the devices, another threat loomed large—this time against the music industry. And once again, a famous rhetorical campaign attempted to argue that the analog cassette was literally destroying an entire industry.
That campaign was "Home Taping is Killing Music," and the music business worried that home recording from the radio and from friends' albums and cassettes spelled the end of making money with recorded music. The campaign even had its own logo, and it led to years of Congressional pressure, but music survived.
