"It would no longer be a marketplace; it would be a kind of a jungle, where this one unlicensed instrument is capable of devouring all that people had invested in and labored over and brought forth."

May 31, 2002 8:21 PM

"It would no longer be a marketplace; it would be a kind of a jungle, where this one unlicensed instrument is capable of devouring all that people had invested in and labored over and brought forth."

Good ol' Cryptome has been kind enough to post Jack Valenti's original congressional testimony against the insidious VCR Threat of 1982. Now we can see his famous 'Boston Strangler' quote in context and pick out a few new favorites. So kick back, substitute the word 'Internet' for 'VCR' and wallow in the sweet irony.

(And don't forget to check out Jack's cool 80s-era Japan-bashing. Keep fightin' the good fight, Jackie-boy!)
[via Slashdot]
posted by Dirjy (4 comments total)

Now, what I am about to read you now boggles my mind and it is going to boggle the mind of everybody in the movie and television business in this city. If 56 of the 93 movies recordings made by the 250 households during the first 3 days of a diary week -- just 56 of those movies are saved for the shelf and for additional playback -- then the number of movies collected in a year by the Nation's 2.4 million VCR households, only 2.4 million, the number of movies collected would be 6,537,216. At a prerecorded purchase of $50, they would have a retail value of $3.2 billion.


Mr. Chairman, things like that could make a grown men cry.

he he he.
posted by ewwgene at 10:04 PM on May 31, 2002

I seem to remember the same kind of hysteria over audio tape.
posted by gordian knot at 5:38 AM on June 1, 2002

Aramaic said it best:

Jack Valenti will be one of the first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
posted by euphorb at 10:53 AM on June 1, 2002

someone ought to shoot that bastard valenti. uh, um, right after they shoot that bombastic bastard quonsar.
posted by quonsar at 3:51 PM on June 1, 2002