Universal City Studios: Fair Use Case

This particular case addressed all factors of the fair use doctrine. University City Studios had legitimate claims but, all claims were turned down on favor of Sony. At the beginning, the U.S. District Court determined that Betamax contributed to copyright infringement. A later Supreme Court analysis reversed the District Court decision. The court concluded that it was the users who infringed on copyright law. Here is an analysis of the events:

Universal City Studios argued that they are the only ones who hold the rights to reproduce their motion picture or audiovisual work. Users recorded the films with the intention to watch the film at a later time. The term time-shifting was applied to this case, which refers to people who were unable