History Main / KeepCirculatingTheTapes

* Music rights. This is a form of insane UsefulNotes/{{copyright}} voodoo, but broadly speaking, licensing a song for a show's original airing, for reruns, and for home video were not the same thing -- and it was usually much more expensive to license it for home video, because it's a "reproduction right" rather than a "performance right". This was mostly because [[ItWillNeverCatchOn nobody even considered the home video phenomenon back then]], and the rightsholders were able to extract a lot of money out of the distributors for something that was likely not to be a thing anyway. There are ways around this -- using {{Cover Version}}s or deleting music entirely (if it doesn't impact the plot) are always options. There's also the issue of the rightsholder threatening a copyright lawsuit where the song ''has'' no rights issues, which will still cause problems like this. Royalties can also be very difficult to untangle with things like a CompilationMovie or ImportationExpansion, where there's more than one rightsholder to wrangle.

* Format compatibility. How are you supposed to play a game on something other than the system for which it was designed? Porting it to another system is generally much more difficult and expensive than simply moving a movie to a new format, and thus it may need significantly more demand to be worth the effort. [[UsefulNotes/FreeLibreOpenSourceSoftware Games whose source code has been opened]] may face several issues such as [[ScrewedByTheLawyers incompatible licensing]] or the overabundance of source ports ([[SturgeonsLaw many of which may even worsen the experience rather than improving it]]) for different purposes.

Physical releases do exist after all? Snatch them up... but they haven't been in print in forever, and used copies are absurdly expensive and the few that might be in your price range are almost definitely either scams or bootlegs... [[NoExportForYou Or they may not even be available]] [[UsefulNotes/RegionCoding in your region]], in which case you'd better be willing to invest in a region free DVD/Blu-ray player as well.

* Even if it existed, it was unwieldy. It was worse in the U.S. than elsewhere -- the British, with their famous BritishBrevity, could fit an entire series on three or four tapes, but the typical American 22-episode season would need eleven tapes, just for one season, and that took up shelf space ''really'' quickly. Furthermore, [[EditedForSyndication television syndicators]] were very reluctant to do this when they could force the public to watch reruns on TV and boost their UsefulNotes/{{ratings}} -- this is a big reason why the majority of VHS-era series on home video were from Creator/{{PBS}}, British series, or compilations of a few episodes of American series.

* [[UsefulNotes/ImportGaming Imports]]. One country's consoles may not be compatible with another country's games, and if there's NoExportForYou, you're out of luck.

This led to the concept of {{Abandonware}} and the creation of UsefulNotes/{{emulation}} as a form of circulating the proverbial tapes, which allowed you to pirate the game if you couldn't get it any other way. Thankfully, with services like the Platform/VirtualConsole, Platform/PlaystationNetwork, Platform/XboxLive, Platform/GOGDotCom, and Platform/{{Steam}}, this situation is ''somewhat'' improving, but you're still likely in trouble if you're looking for a more niche game.

* In the old [[UsefulNotes/{{VCR}} VHS days]] of television, this kind of thing was ''very'' much not cost-effective. VHS tapes were expensive, and you could generally only fit two episodes of a series on a single tape (you could in theory go up to five or six, but there was no way to skip to a given episode without the fast-forward button and patience). And VHS was also a pretty fragile format; imagine a $300 investment wiped out by a single hungry fridge magnet. VHS also degrades over time without the ideal storage condition (which is a dry and arid but cold vault, which means leasing such vault from a storage company, typically for thousands of dollars a month, as said vaults are usually leased by huge enterprises to store company backups, which are also made on tape even to this day), meaning that if you didn't transfer the footage to another tape (or to digital format when that became an option), after 25 years it could be lost forever.

This led to the concept of {{Abandonware}} and the creation of UsefulNotes/{{emulation}} as a form of circulating the proverbial tapes, which allowed you to pirate the game if you couldn't get it any other way. Thankfully, with services like the Platform/VirtualConsole, Platform/PlaystationNetwork, Platform/XboxLive, Website/GOGDotCom, and Platform/{{Steam}}, this situation is ''somewhat'' improving, but you're still likely in trouble if you're looking for a more niche game.

* [[BuryYourArt The creator has come to regret making the work and may not even]] ''[[BuryYourArt want]]'' [[BuryYourArt anybody to have access to it.]] They'd rather you forget about it, as was famously the case with ''Film/TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial''.

* In the old [[UsefulNotes/{{VCR}} VHS days]] of television, this kind of thing was ''very'' much not cost-effective. VHS tapes were expensive, and you could generally only fit two episodes of a series on a single tape (you could in theory go up to five or six, but there was no way to skip to a given episode without the fast-forward button and patience). And VHS was also a pretty fragile format; imagine a $300 investment wiped out by a single hungry fridge magnet. VHS also degrades over time without the ideal storage condition (which is a dry and arid but cold vault, which means leasing such vault from a storage company, typically for thousands of dollars a month, as said vaults are usually leased by huge enterprises to store company backups, which are also made to tape even to this day), meaning that if you didn't transfer the footage to another tape (or to digital format when that became an option), after 25 years it can be lost forever.

* There were music rights to consider. This is a form of insane UsefulNotes/{{copyright}} voodoo, but broadly speaking, licensing a song for a show's original airing, for reruns, and for home video were not the same thing -- and it was usually much more expensive to license it for home video, because it's a "reproduction right" rather than a "performance right". This was mostly because [[ItWillNeverCatchOn nobody even considered the home video phenomenon back then]], and the rightsholders were able to extract a lot of money out of the distributors for something that was likely not to be a thing anyway. There are ways around this -- using {{Cover Version}}s or deleting music entirely (if it doesn't impact the plot) are always options. There's also the issue of the rightsholder threatening a copyright lawsuit where the song ''has'' no rights issues, which will still cause problems like this. Royalties can also be very difficult to untangle with things like a CompilationMovie or ImportationExpansion, where there's more than one rightsholder to wrangle.

* Additionally, someone involved with the work may have committed a RoleEndingMisdemeanor or had such an ugly falling-out with the others that their presence was either completely scrubbed from the work and [[UnPerson replaced with someone else]], or they just pulled everything with their presence and left it at that.

Especially as regards imports, censorship standards can be a problem. If a work is BannedInChina, your only option if you're ''in'' a particular continent, country, state, or province where the tape in question is banned is to circulate the tapes. This kind of thing is especially risky, though, because the pirates who might circulate the proverbial tapes for you might not have access to the work themselves -- the only versions you could get are shady downloads with malware in them.

VideoGames and similarly complex media have the issue of format compatibility -- how are you supposed to play a game on something other than the system for which it was designed? Porting it to another system may be much more difficult and expensive than simply moving a movie to a new format, and thus it may need significantly more demand to be worth the effort. [[UsefulNotes/FreeLibreOpenSourceSoftware Games whose source code has been opened]] may face several issues such as [[ScrewedByTheLawyers incompatible licensing]] or the overabundance of source ports ([[SturgeonsLaw many of which may even worsen the experience rather than improving it]]) for different purposes. It gets worse regarding UsefulNotes/ImportGaming, as one country's consoles may not be compatible with another country's games, and if there's NoExportForYou, you're out of luck. This led to the concept of {{Abandonware}} and the creation of UsefulNotes/{{emulation}}, which allowed you to pirate the game if you couldn't get it any other way. Thankfully, with services like the Platform/VirtualConsole, Platform/PlaystationNetwork, Platform/XboxLive, Website/GOGDotCom, and Platform/{{Steam}}, this situation is ''somewhat'' improving, but you're still likely in trouble if you're looking for a more niche game.

* Especially as regards imports, censorship standards can be a problem. If a work is BannedInChina, your only option if you're ''in'' a particular continent, country, state, or province where the tape in question is banned is to circulate the tapes. This kind of thing is especially risky, though, because the pirates who might circulate the proverbial tapes for you might not have access to the work themselves -- the only versions you could get are shady downloads with malware in them.

* VideoGames and similarly complex media have the issue of format compatibility -- how are you supposed to play a game on something other than the system for which it was designed? Porting it to another system may be much more difficult and expensive than simply moving a movie to a new format, and thus it may need significantly more demand to be worth the effort. [[UsefulNotes/FreeLibreOpenSourceSoftware Games whose source code has been opened]] may face several issues such as [[ScrewedByTheLawyers incompatible licensing]] or the overabundance of source ports ([[SturgeonsLaw many of which may even worsen the experience rather than improving it]]) for different purposes. It gets worse regarding UsefulNotes/ImportGaming, as one country's consoles may not be compatible with another country's games, and if there's NoExportForYou, you're out of luck. This led to the concept of {{Abandonware}} and the creation of UsefulNotes/{{emulation}}, which allowed you to pirate the game if you couldn't get it any other way. Thankfully, with services like the Platform/VirtualConsole, Platform/PlaystationNetwork, Platform/XboxLive, Website/GOGDotCom, and Platform/{{Steam}}, this situation is ''somewhat'' improving, but you're still likely in trouble if you're looking for a more niche game.

* VideoGames and similarly complex media have the issue of format compatibility -- how are you supposed to play a game on something other than the system for which it was designed? Porting it to another system may be much more difficult and expensive than simply moving a movie to a new format, and thus it may need significantly more demand to be worth the effort. [[UsefulNotes/FreeLibreOpenSourceSoftware Games whose source code has been opened]] may face several issues such as [[ScrewedByTheLawyers incompatible licensing]] or the overabundance of source ports ([[SturgeonsLaw many of which may even worsen the experience rather than improving it]]) for different purposes. It gets worse regarding UsefulNotes/ImportGaming, as one country's consoles may not be compatible with another country's games, and if there's NoExportForYou, you're out of luck. This led to the concept of {{Abandonware}} and the creation of UsefulNotes/{{emulation}}, which allowed you to pirate the game if you couldn't get it any other way. Thankfully, with services like the UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole, UsefulNotes/PlaystationNetwork, Platform/XboxLive, Website/GOGDotCom, and UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, this situation is ''somewhat'' improving, but you're still likely in trouble if you're looking for a more niche game.

* VideoGames and similarly complex media have the issue of format compatibility -- how are you supposed to play a game on something other than the system for which it was designed? Porting it to another system may be much more difficult and expensive than simply moving a movie to a new format, and thus it may need significantly more demand to be worth the effort. [[UsefulNotes/FreeLibreOpenSourceSoftware Games whose source code has been opened]] may face several issues such as [[ScrewedByTheLawyers incompatible licensing]] or the overabundance of source ports ([[SturgeonsLaw many of which may even worsen the experience rather than improving it]]) for different purposes. It gets worse regarding UsefulNotes/ImportGaming, as one country's consoles may not be compatible with another country's games, and if there's NoExportForYou, you're out of luck. This led to the concept of {{Abandonware}} and the creation of UsefulNotes/{{emulation}}, which allowed you to pirate the game if you couldn't get it any other way. Thankfully, with services like the UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole, UsefulNotes/PlaystationNetwork, UsefulNotes/XboxLive, Website/GOGDotCom, and UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, this situation is ''somewhat'' improving, but you're still likely in trouble if you're looking for a more niche game.

Physical releases do exist after all? Snatch them up... but they haven't been in print in forever, and used copies are absurdly expensive and the few that might be in your price range are almost definitely either scams or bootlegs... [[UsefulNotes/RegionCoding Or they aren't even available in your region at all.]]

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant This has nothing to do with story plots revolving around tapes]], a la ''Series/ThirteenReasonsWhy''.

On TV, the first to popularize the concept of home video was Creator/{{HBO}} with ''Series/TheSopranos'', and nowadays, with the ease of putting a show on DVD or a streaming service and easily replicating and distributing it, the fragility and expense problems of VHS are a thing of the past -- but for older shows, they have to be converted to digital first. You still have issues with rightsholders, censorship, and distributors wanting to protect their TV channels -- it's especially a problem in certain countries where the networks are so profit-driven that [[ExecutiveMeddling the advertisers decide which programs they show]] and will block the whole DVD thing to get you to see the ads. Also, not every streaming service [[NoExportForYou is available in every country]], and even when it is, it might not [[BadExportForYou have as extensive a library there]] as it might elsewhere. This might be why [[DigitalPiracyIsOkay piracy]] is so much more prevalent in parts of the third world.

* [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes/Anime&MangaRescued Anime & Manga]]

* [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes/{{Music}} Music]]

[[KeepCirculatingTheTapes/{{Music}} Music]]

[[KeepCirculatingTheTapes/{{Music}} {{Music}}]]

[[KeepCirculatingTheTapes/Music {{Music}}]]

[[KeepCirculatingTheTapes/Music Music]]