Video piracy was hardly a crime in 1982

Re:Video piracy was hardly a crime in 1982 by agumonkey on Wednesday November 20, 2019 @10:01AM (#21584451)

It's a matter of proportions. Everybody had copies in the 80s but it wasn't perfect replica and infinitely feasible to distribute, so creators didn't care too much. Some did care.. there were copy protections of various kinds (IIRC Nintendo cartridges has some checks).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Video piracy was hardly a crime in 1982 by teddyh on Wednesday November 20, 2019 @10:20AM (#21584646)

Some tapes had something called “Macrovision” which made it harder to copy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_protection#Videotape

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Video piracy was hardly a crime in 1982 by agumonkey on Wednesday November 20, 2019 @10:24AM (#21584685)

True, but it didn't become mainstream until much later IIRC.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Video piracy was hardly a crime in 1982 by damontal on Wednesday November 20, 2019 @11:05AM (#21585036)

you could buy a filter to remove that

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Video piracy was hardly a crime in 1982 by catalogia on Wednesday November 20, 2019 @02:07PM (#21587275)

IIRC some products even had the unintended consequence of removing it. I believe my mother copied those tapes using her camcorder to play the tape into the VCR which was recording. That's how I recall it working anyway, I don't think she had any special piracy/filter hardware.

[ Parent | on HN ]