Have you encountered VHS or Cassette piracy in the 80s? (piefed.social)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by Shadow79@piefed.social to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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Like that infamous "ET" torrent in 1982 where it involved a "pirate" sneaking a huge JVC camcorder (with a VHS reel) recording the entire movie in theaters, given this was before DVD's existed (don't even ask about pirate bay, those weren't available yet). The same applies to "torrented" music, one would have a spare tape cassette recording the song played via the radio, that's how they torrented content back then if they can't afford an official copy.

Only millennials or Gen X who were kids back then would've encountered or witnessed VHS or Cassette "torrents" from either friends or family and often or not, piracy in the pre internet days was rife even before torrent sites were a thing. There are VHS "torrents" of TV shows or series (placing a camcorder which faces the TV screen with a spare reel recording the entire show (ads included), then used to fast forward upon replay.

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[-] Mordikan@kbin.earth 7 points 1 week ago

The most common I remember (I was like 5 at the time) was to go to the video rental store and rent a bunch of movies on VHS. You'd also rent a VHS player. You take the rental VHS player home and cable it to your existing VHS player. While one is playing the movie, the other is recording. Quick way to get a massive library of movies all named with sharpie markers and those little VHS stickers.

The real question is how many times you write over that movie and have to cross out what it was because you obviously can't be bothered to go and buy more VHS tapes.

this post was submitted on 23 May 2026

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