EOTO- The VCR Reflection

The start of choosing what to view...

A classmate of mine, Natasha, explored the VCR. She went through the history, explained its significance, and spoke about its effects on society and on individual companies. Here are my take aways about what I learned and what I want to know more about. 

The VCR was a big new invention because it revolutionized watching movies and shows at home. Rather than people having to plan their schedule around when something was going to be on tv, people could just pop in a tape or record something and watch it when they had the time. Another reason this was revolutionary is because it allowed people to choose what they wanted to watch. Viewers didn't have to watch whatever was on the tv, instead they could choice from a variety of options. 

Starting in the 1950's the VCR was open to the public, but they were unreasonably expensive and didn't even have the ability to play a tape. 20 years later, Sony and JVC came out with new VCRs. The JVC came out with the VHS and Sony had the Beta Max. This gave people the ability to go buy tapes and use them to watch movies without having to record them. The ability to buy tapes led to problems among the movie industry. 

In 1976, Disney and Universal Studios sued Sony for copyright laws. Then, in 1984, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Sony citing the Mr. Roger defense. After Natashas presentation I was curious about what Mr. Rogers defense was. After research, I learned that this defense is about the growth of a network and that ability in the end to benefit both parties because the sales will grow if they can sell their work. 

Going back a  few years in 1977, the first video rental store was opened by George Atkinson in LA. Not even 20 years later, half of all studio revenue came from the video rental sales. As of today, the VHS is no longer sold and the last one ever to be sold was in 2016 made by Funai Electric. 

While the VCR was a big invention for the time, today there are many other things that make doing what. VCR did easier. Back when VCR's were still in use and there was nothing else that could do what they did, the ability to choose when and what you wanted to watch was a huge pro. The only negative that seemed to come up was the Disney and Universal lawsuit because at the beginning they were losing money. As of today, we can tell that is no longer the case.