In Brief : Valenti Seeks VCR Collaboration

The chief spokesman for the motion picture industry has called for an alliance with the VCR industry--once considered a dreaded rival--in the battle against film pirating.

Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, told attendees at the Consumer Electronics Show that the videocassette recorder industry was viewed as a virus by his industry as movie attendance waned in the 1970s.

A strange thing has happened since 1971, when the electronics industry and the movies declared war on each other, Valenti said.

“The trend is that the more a person watches a movie on a VCR, the more that person seems to be drawn to wanting to see a movie in a theater,” Valenti said Sunday.

A rapport and attitude of “cooperative collaboration” has developed “between your industry and mine,” Valenti told the electronics executives. Valenti called for the electronics industry to join in the battle against film piracy and illegal copying.