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The point of the parent comment is that, if the copyright people had their way, VCRs and the like would be irrelevant, because they would make it so that you _c

The point of the parent comment is that, if the copyright people had their way, VCRs and the like would be irrelevant, because they would make it so that you _couldn't_ back up media. It's a pattern that keeps repeating itself. Copyright owners with deep enough pockets try to build "anti-piracy" technical measures which actually just prevent people from backing up their media, while piracy continues unabated regardless of those technical hurdles that impact 99% of people.

LocalH 4y ago
Correct. Jack Valenti famously equated the VCR to the Boston Strangler.
tivert 4y ago
> The point of the parent comment is that, if the copyright people had their way, VCRs and the like would be irrelevant, because they would make it so that you _couldn't_ back up media. The (grand)parent comment didn't talk about any of that.
- MPSimmons 4y ago
  I don't really want to get into an argument on HackerNews about this, but I took it as read in this sentence: >This is what today's IP oligopolists would have happen to the bulk of culture
  - rjbwork 4y ago
    Correct, this is exactly what I was referring to w/ that sentence.
acomjean 4y ago
It was hard to back up media. Those vcrs had macro vision that made coping bought movies hard (we tried). Without the internet it was hard to tell why it was failing. You could tape over the air stuff though.
- Teever 4y ago
  macrovision is a prime example of those copyright owners making it hard.