# When did people start and stop making physical copies of pirated media

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-and-stop-making-physical-copies-of-pirated-media/823111>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [October 17, 2018, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-and-stop-making-physical-copies-of-pirated-media/823111 "2018-10-17T21:58:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2018, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-and-stop-making-physical-copies-of-pirated-media/823111/21 "2018-10-19T20:09:41Z")

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> [@echoreply](#):
>
> I can remember connecting two VHS machines, but also Macrovision (am I remembering that right?).

An advantage of Beta. The blanking interval trick for the original Macrovision didn’t work on Betamaxes.

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**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2018, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-and-stop-making-physical-copies-of-pirated-media/823111/22 "2018-10-19T20:40:47Z")

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Putting Macrovision in VCRs was a voluntary thing–I had ones without it–and made copies of every movie that I rented (RCA outputs of one VCR into the RCA inputs of a second one.)

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**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2018, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-and-stop-making-physical-copies-of-pirated-media/823111/23 "2018-10-19T22:40:43Z")

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> [@echoreply](#):
>
> When did dual cassette decks first appear? The mid-70s? By the mid-80s they were extremely common, and copying tapes for and from friends was routine. Dual VHS players were much more rare, though. I can remember connecting two VHS machines, but also Macrovision (am I remembering that right?).

When I went to college in 1969 I brought a reel-to-reel tape deck, and copied the albums my friends had. So copying went on long before there were decent cassette decks.  
When WBCN in Boston had rare tape night, the record stores had sales on tape so that people could record the rare content, so I wasmn’t the only one doing this.

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**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2018, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-people-start-and-stop-making-physical-copies-of-pirated-media/823111/24 "2018-10-20T02:05:33Z")

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I think the end of the era mostly coincides with the coming of age of broadband and cheap storage.

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