2. 3. 4. པ་ 6. "A Consumer Survey: Home Taping," March, 1982 "A Survey of Households With Tape Playback "A Study on Tape Recording Practices Among the General Public," June, 1979 (The Roper Survey") Statement of Alan Greenspan Re: Amendment No. 1333 to S. 1758, Before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, April 21, 1982 7. 8. (iii) "The Legal Status of Home Audio Recording of Copyrighted Works," by Professor Melville B. Nimmer Letter from J. Kamei, Executive Director, Japan AUDIO HOME TAPING: THE CASE FOR A FAIR DEAL FOR SUMMARY OF POSITION The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) joins the entire musical arts community including 1,300 companies and more than 2 million individuals who have formed a Coalition to SAVE AMERICA'S MUSIC1/ in supporting prompt passage of the MathiasEdwards "home taping" legislation (Amendment No. 1333 to S. 1758 and H.R. 5705). That legislation would establish a fair mechanism for compensating copyright owners whose creative properties are being appropriated at massive levels through home taping. It would, at the same time, relieve home tapers of copyrighted audio and video works from liability for copyright infringement. This is a fair compromise of the interests at issue in the home taping controversy. It would provide compensation to creative artists for their works, protect the consumer, and avert the economic havoc that home taping promises to visit on the entire music industry. 1/ See Appendix One for a list of the Coalition's membership. - 2 The Extent of Home Taping Recent advances in audio taping technology and the increased availability of inexpensive, easy-to operate, high quality recording devices have led to an explosion of home audio taping. A new study by Warner Communications Inc. (WCI) reveals, for example, that - in 1980 home tapers copied recordings with an estimated market value of $2.85 billion the equivalent of 455 million albums. In 1981, by comparison, the recording industry sold the equivalent of only 475 million albums. Taping, in short, is taking over. And as a number of studies have revealed, the problem is getting worse, with most blank tape buyers reporting that they are taping more than ever before. The Injury Caused by Home Taping Home taping injures the recording industry and the entire musical arts community because it displaces sales of pre-recorded discs and tapes. The WCI Survey found that people tape primarily to avoid buying records, and that tapers make most of their copies from records which they do not own. In this way, home taping undermines the value of the copyrights in sound recordings and musical compositions. |