A lot people on HN probably weren't alive to know that this happened. It would do people well to read the testimony given before a subcommittee of the House of Representatives back in 1983[1] to get some idea of exactly how willing and eager to destroy innovation copyright maximalists really are.
Nothing suggests the attitudes motivating the MPAA's lack of foresight re: the VCR in 1983, aand their general unwillingness to allow anything to upset the status quo, have gone anywhere in the ensuing decades.
