In the 1983 case Sony Corporation of America et al. v. Universal City Studios, Inc., et al., the U.S Supreme Court ruled in favor of Sony, determining that consumers using video tape recorders (VTRs) for home use did not infringe on copyright laws and were protected under fair use doctrine. The court also held that manufacturers like Sony could not be held liable for potential infringement by consumers as long as their products are capable of substantial non-infringing uses. This decision was significant because it allowed VTR technology to flourish without fear of legal repercussions from movie studios or other content creators who argued that recording television programs at home constituted a violation of copyright law.

In the dissenting opinion for Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., Justice Blackmun argued that home videotaping constituted copyright infringement and should not be protected under fair use doctrine. He contended that such taping was not a "productive use" as it merely replicated copyrighted material without adding anything new or transformative. Furthermore, he believed this practice harmed potential markets for the copyright owners by reducing their ability to control and profit from their works' distribution. In his view, allowing unrestricted home copying would undermine incentives for creativity and production in the entertainment industry which could ultimately harm consumers by decreasing available content quality and variety.