As the case between film studio Metro Goldwyn Mayer and file-sharing software firm Grokster continues in the US Supreme Court, protesters from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) adopted a new tactic. EFF Staff Technologist Seth Schoen acquired several Betamax tapes. As Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), arrived at the courthouse, EFF Media Coordinator Annalee Newitz asked Valenti to sign one of the tapes; Valenti complied with her request.

In 1982, Valenti testified before the US Congress in an effort to outlaw Sony's Betamax, an early video cassette recorder. In his testimony, Valenti uttered his oft-quoted phrase, "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."

The current case, MGM v. Grokster, has some similarities. Both disputes concerned new technology used for copying media-- exclusively video in the Betamax case, all digital media in the case of Grokster. There are dissimilarities as well. A recent statement from Recording Artists' Coalition spokesperson and professional chanteuse Sheryl Crow points out that with the Betamax, "a second copy turned out to be of measurably inferior quality," while with Grokster, "one could possibly distribute millions of perfectly reproduced copies." Crow also quotes an expurgated version of the copyright clause of the US Constitution.

"To promote the progress of...useful arts by securing ... to authors [sic] the exclusive right to their respective writings ..."

The original text reads: "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."