Prosecution may follow sales of home TV cassettes

Press, 29 October 1981, Page 19

Prosecution may follow sales of home TV cassettes

PA Wellington The Broadcasting Corporation says it will prosecute people selling video cassettes of recorded television programmes. A corporation spokesman said that many such cassettes are being sold, mostly of sports programmes. “All programmes broadcast by Television New Zealand are copyright and while it is unclear whether it is legal to record programmes for private screening, it is definitely illegal to record programmes for public viewing or for sale," the corporation added. Nearly 3M Americans who own home video cassette recorders are still taping their favourite television programmes. despite' a court ruling last week that it is illegal.

Stores across the nation are continuing to sell the

machines, which cost upwards of s72p.

With sales this year expected to hit 1.5 M. “the video tape recording industry is one of those things that’s gone too far to stop,” said David Lachenbruch, editorial director of TV Digest.

The federal court of appeals in San Francisco ruled that users of video tape machines, their manufacturers, retailers and advertising agencies that promote them could be sued for damages if the recorders are used to tape copyrighted material off the air, even for home use.

The case, begun in 1976 when the Japanese company, Sony, first began selling video recorders in the United States, now seems likely to go to the Supreme Court. But the United States Congress could intervene, and already one amendment to

the copyright act of 1976 that would allow taping of TV programmes for home use has been introduced in the House of Representatives. Home recording of TV shows is not the only use of the recorders. Americans can rent cassettes of movies from Disney kiddies' production to x-rated fare like “Deep Throat" for S 5 to $B. or buy them outright for upwards of $5O. But up to 70 per cent of all machine sales are held to be by people who want to tape TV programmes. “The very nature of the product is a home-recording device," said one industry expert.

"The primary purpose is not to stockpile TV programmes, but to record, and later watch, ones that are missed."

The industry's immediate reaction to the court ruling is that it is "a fleeting blip."