Holy Duplication!

The most publicized video of the year--”Batman”--apparently has been put on the market without Macrovision, the standard anti-copying device used to prevent unauthorized duplication of copyrighted videocassettes.

Warner Home Video shipped an estimated 13 million-16 million copies of the video nationwide on Nov. 15, with a suggested list price of $24.98. (Many stores have priced it considerably lower.)

Outtakes was able to copy its “Batman” video, and a survey of several local video stores indicates that most, if not all, the “Batman” videos are apparently being sold without anti-copying protection. Warner Home Video execs we reached declined to comment and a company spokesman had not returned our calls at press time.

An insider at Tower Records, where the “Batman” video is a hot item, thought its lack of protection won’t hurt sales: “Copy-guard is just an industry security blanket,” he said. “At this ridiculously low price, it’s cheaper to buy than copy it. The fact that it isn’t copy-protected won’t affect our sales at all.”

A smaller retailer disagreed. “We think people won’t rent it as much if they can make copies at home,” he said. “Once word gets out that you can copy it, there won’t be any market for it.”

“Who’s going to want a copy for Christmas when every kid already has one?” asked another video store owner. “Warner usually copy-guards its product. I don’t know why they didn’t protect this valuable property.”

A video manufacturing insider theorized that Warner, with a rushed shipping schedule, skipped the Macrovision stage to save time. “And since the price (for the consumer) is so low, the added cost of encoding each copy was probably a factor,” he added.

The all-time video sales champ, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” which sold close to 15 million copies last year, was protected with Macrovision.