Betamax is dead, long live VHS | Technology | The Guardian<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nAnd all I could think of was the language from the ‘Limitations on exclusive rights:\u00a0 Reproduction by libraries in archives’ in US Code Title 17 (yeah, I’m quoting copyright law) that says the specific reproduction allowed to libraries for preservation and such if the “existing format in which the work is stored has become obsolete.”\u00a0 ‘Obsolete’ is later defined as the circumstance where “the machine or device necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.”<\/p>\n
I realize the announcement was in regard to Betamax cassettes and not the players, but it makes me wonder how long a format clings to life when the regular consuming public leaves it behind, believes it to be dead.\u00a0 If obsolete really boils down to commercially available, then Sony’s announcement is only a depressing assertion that the aging VHS collections of the library world, those that no one is willing or able to up-format commercially, are going to wither away.\u00a0 Can’t we just move on already? \u00a0 I say this, but then I have recently acquired a turntable, cassette, CD player combo, and\u00a0 I know there is a growing nostalgic format movement (at least among my friends).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This popped up into my email this week. Seriously. Sony announces end of production of Betamax cassettes for March next year, 40 years after its introduction and 28 years after losing format war to VHS Source: Betamax is dead, long live VHS | Technology | The Guardian And all I could think of was the… Continue reading Aging library video collections, copyright, and ?Betamax?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-6722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-librarians"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7112,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2016\/04\/26\/ifla-libraries-copyright-and-creativity\/","url_meta":{"origin":6722,"position":0},"title":"IFLA — Libraries, Copyright and Creativity","author":"leems","date":"April 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Source: IFLA -- Libraries, Copyright and Creativity","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"copyright-creativity","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/copyright-creativity-e1461674611618.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7489,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2016\/10\/25\/3-witches-of-scholarly-publishing-leems-comics\/","url_meta":{"origin":6722,"position":1},"title":"3 Witches of Scholarly publishing \u2013 LeEMS Comics","author":"leems","date":"October 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Visit the post for more. Source: 3 Witches of Scholarly publishing \u2013 LeEMS Comics Guess what?\u00a0 I draw nerdy comics about copyright, publishing and libraries.\u00a0 This one seemed appropriate for Open Access Week.\u00a0 Be on the lookout for more, posting to the Drawing Board soon!","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/OAscares-the-publishers-comic.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7720,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2017\/08\/18\/comic-posting\/","url_meta":{"origin":6722,"position":2},"title":"Comic posting!","author":"leems","date":"August 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Levi Levi Chapter 3: Epic Problems at APPIC is posting! ...every Thursday. 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Also starting up again are random comics on the Drawing board.\u00a0 They will be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Levibutton.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3494,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2013\/03\/19\/our-lives-with-books\/","url_meta":{"origin":6722,"position":3},"title":"Our lives with books","author":"leems","date":"March 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I am finally back in the saddle of keeping up with my fellow library schmucks and I've scrolled through enough news items for the 'e-books not print books,' 'death of libraries in face of digital materials,' 'no one has personal libraries anymore' chants to finally give me a headache. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"library003","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/library003-449x600.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8783,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2019\/12\/18\/christmas-from-digital-libraries\/","url_meta":{"origin":6722,"position":4},"title":"Christmas from digital libraries","author":"leems","date":"December 18, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Merry Christmas. New York Public Library Digital Collections. https:\/\/digitalcollections.nypl.org\/items\/510d47e3-6737-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/nypl.digitalcollections.510d47e3-6737-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.001.w.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/nypl.digitalcollections.510d47e3-6737-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.001.w.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/nypl.digitalcollections.510d47e3-6737-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.001.w.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/nypl.digitalcollections.510d47e3-6737-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.001.w.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1498,"url":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2012\/07\/22\/in-library-ebook-lending-program-expands-to-1000-libraries-internet-archive-blogs\/","url_meta":{"origin":6722,"position":5},"title":"In-Library eBook Lending Program Expands to 1,000 Libraries | Internet Archive Blogs","author":"leems","date":"July 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The internet archive finally did it - or did it while I wasn't looking.\u00a0 If you are not aware of the internet archive then I suggest checking it out.\u00a0 There are tons of public domain books, recordings, and videos there as well as the way-back machine.\u00a0 Ever wonder what a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/category\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6722"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6727,"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6722\/revisions\/6727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}