drwex | A Supreme Court case

As was demonstrated in an interview with Katie Couric, Sarah Palin is unable to name any Supreme Court Case other than Roe v. Wade.

The Rules: Post info about ONE Supreme Court decision, modern or historic, to your lj. (Any decision, as long as it's not Roe v. Wade.) For those who see this on your f-list, take the meme to your OWN lj to spread the fun.

My choice: Sony Corp. of Amer. v. Universal City Studios, Inc 464 U.S. 417 (1984)

This is somewhat more popularly known as "The Betamax case." Sony, makers of Betamax home video recorders, were found free to manufacture and sell machines that permitted consumers to make private home recordings of copyrighted material that had been broadcast over the airwaves.

Again put more simply: VCRs, and ultimately their descendants, were ruled to be legal and further it was found that the rights of the owners of the material you and I record cannot be used to prevent us making private copies, time-shifting our viewing, and even re-showing these recordings in the privacy of our homes to people who did not see the original broadcast.

These rights aren't earth-shaking, nor on the order of the rights to marry people of different skin colors, to use birth control, to have babies when and how one chooses, and so on. But the rights established in Sony v Universal have affected techno-social development for the last quarter decade in profound ways we're only beginning to understand.