Posts Tagged: "Motion Picture Association of America"

Inspiration vs. Copying: Where’s the Line in Hollywood?

When it comes to television shows, it not always clear what is “copyrightable.” Sometimes, filmmakers and screen writers can get into serious trouble if they don’t follow specific television copyright laws accordingly. Austin-based filmmaker Lex Lybrand watched the June 4th episode of the hit HBO series “Silicon Valley” to shockingly find strong similarities between the episode “The Patent Troll” and his own film “The Trolls.” Jed Wakefield of Fenwick & West recently sat down with IPWatchdog to discuss Lybrand’s case and the impact of copyright infringement when it comes to movie scripts.

Amanda G. Ciccatelli

July 7, 2017

The Last VCR: The final punctuation on the rise and fall of old-school home video

Reports from Japanese media indicate that Osaka-based Funai Electric (TYO:6839) will cease production of videocassette recorders (VCRs) by the end of the month. The company cited a few issues such as a difficulty to source parts and dwindling sales which dropped to 750,000 units in 2015; at its peak, Funai was selling 15 million VCR units per year. The death knell for videotape technologies has been sounding for some time. Last year, Tokyo-based electronics conglomerate Sony Corp. (NYSE:SNE) announced its decision to discontinue both Betamax videocassettes and Micro MV cassettes used for recording. The Video Home System (VHS) standard suffered a significant blow in 2008 when the last major VHS distributor discontinued sales. Although few are bemoaning the loss of videotape thanks to the convenience and higher quality of discs and VOD, production of the world’s last VCR turns our focus backwards in time to see the rise and fall of this early home video technology.

Steve Brachmann

July 30, 2016