A century-worth of fear mongering

The EFF discusses the music and movie industries, and their history of fear mongering:

This week, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is running a great ad [PDF] in the Capitol Hill newspaper, Roll Call, reminding Congress that the entertainment oligopolies have cried wolf about new technologies many times before.

The ad collects a century-worth of fear mongering by an industry focused on legislating to protect out-dated business models[...]

The movie and music business, ironically enough given their own origins in piracy and copyright infringement, have objected to:

• The player-piano


• The wireless radio


• The cassette tape recorder


• The VCR, famously described as being like Jack The Ripper


• The DAT tape, successfully killed by RIAA-sponsored legislation


• Digital VCRs like Tivo


• The digital radio

and now the industry is crying wolf about devices capable of recording digital radio, claiming that they will destroy the music industry.

Just like the player-piano did, and the radio, and the cassette tape, and ...