Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.

Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. was part of a Supreme Court case that happened in 1984. It was a very important case because it helped to decide whether it was legal or not to own or use a device called a VCR (video cassette recorder). Universal City Studios, which was a movie studio, argued that if people had VCR's, they could make copies of movies without paying for them. Sony argued that VCR's were a useful device to watch movies or record TV programmes and had nothing to do with copying movies for free. In the end, the Supreme Court sided with Sony and said that people could own and use VCR's. This decision helped to shape our current laws about controlling how people can copy music, movies and other copyrighted works.