They deserve some control of their creations. Making cassette tapes or copies of CDs for personal use has been affirmed by court rulings, while a 1992 law allowed consumers to make limited digital copies of music, with royalties to be included in the price of blank tapes and discs. In 1999, a court ruled that portable digital music players could be sold and gave owners the right to move their music from PCs to the devices. Fair use is intentionally vague because it balances the rights of copyright holders with those of the public and must reflect changing technology. Parents often make copies of animated tapes so small children can pop them in the VCR themselves without worry.
Music fans make mix tapes or discs of their collections to play in their Walkmans or cars.
ER viewers never need to miss an episode with a VCR handy. Along the way, innovations such as the VCR and the Walkman have nurtured huge, profitable markets for hardware makers and Hollywood alike. What the entertainment industry once tolerated as penny-ante pickpocketing is now envisioned as theft on a massive global scale. A shift in balance toward the entertainment industry is exemplified, consumer advocates say, in 1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Movie studios, record labels and other copyright holders lobbied for the DMCA's passage to protect U.S. movies and music from international piracy.