Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service.
Abstract
Various Members of Congress have proposed amendments to the Copyright Act that would provide a blanket exemption for noncommercial home audio and video off-air recording. The major thrust of the copyright owners' opposing position is if you cannot protect what you own, or at least receive some compensation for its use, you own nothing. This is countered by those who feel the purpose of the copyright law is to promote broad public availability of artistic products and when the copyright owners decide to use the distribution mechanism of the public airwaves, they have to accept the premises of the public airwaves
