History Main / KeepCirculatingtheTapes

* 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. Games whose source code has been opened may face several issues such as [[ScrewedByTheLawyers incompatible licensing]] or the overabundance of source ports (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.

{{Creator/Netflix}}, {{Creator/Hulu}}, Creator/DisneyPlus, Creator/HBOMax, Creator/{{Peacock}}, Creator/AmazonPrime, Creator/ParamountPlus or iTunes? Not there... or there... or there...and even if they were, they may not be up forever.

{{Creator/Netflix}}, {{Creator/Hulu}}, Creator/DisneyPlus, Creator/HBOMax, Creator/{{Peacock}}, Creator/AmazonPrime, Creator/ParamountPlus, or iTunes? Not there... or there... or there...and even if they were, they may not be up forever.

See also NoExportForYou, MissingEpisode, TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment, ScrewedByTheNetwork, and DenialOfDigitalDistribution, all dealing with situations where they easily ''could'' make the work available but don't. This trope is a way of dealing with the situation. Wiki/ArchiveTeam, the Website/WaybackMachine, and [[Website/{{Reddit}} the DataHoarder subreddit]] all make an effort to preserve Web pages in this manner (with varying results).

* 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. 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.

See also NoExportForYou, MissingEpisode, TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment, ScrewedByTheNetwork, and DenialOfDigitalDistribution, all dealing with situations where they easily ''could'' make the work available but don't. This trope is a way of dealing with the situation. See also [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment also]] Wiki/ArchiveTeam, the Website/WaybackMachine, and [[Website/{{Reddit}} the DataHoarder subreddit]], which make an effort to preserve Web pages in this manner (with varying results).

* The work may be an OldShame and the creator may not ''want'' anybody to have access to it because they'd rather you forget 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.

The TropeNamer is ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', which used the phrase in the credits of early episodes to encourage fans to share the show with each other -- it was a niche thing, and the makers knew it. They also knew that the show would hit serious licensing issues later on, as each episode showed someone else's movie so that they could riff on it, and a few episodes of the show remain unobtainable (legally) even today without the proverbial tape circulation.

* Especially as regards imports, censorship standards can be a problem. If a work is BannedInChina, your only option if you're ''in'' "China" 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.

{{Creator/Netflix}}, {{Creator/Hulu}} or iTunes? Not there... or there... or there.

And if it happens to have fallen into the UsefulNotes/PublicDomain? Good luck finding anyone with a high-quality enough copy that it doesn't look like you're watching the visual equivalent of braille.

So what's a fan to do? You're not ''trying'' to break copyright law -- you'd be more than happy to pay to acquire it legally! But since you can't, you have to go to your last resort option -- get it [[DigitalPiracyIsOkay illegally]] (or at least in a legal grey area somewhere).

'''Important notice:''' It is against TV Tropes rules to provide links or directions to pirated material. Please don't tell readers ''where'' these works can be illegally obtained. When writing examples, just say that it can be found online and leave it at that. (Think of it this way: if the link becomes too popular, [[ScrewedByTheLawyers they'll take it down]].)

Try and get the rights to rerelease it yourself if you have the means to do so? You can try... but whoever holds the rights to it either has no interest in doing so, or demands a ludicrous amount of money that you cannot possibly afford. Or worse, you can't even find who owns the rights to make a deal.

* 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 American series.

* 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}}.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes/{{Film}}

[[AC:Striaght]]

!!Examples

!!Works that were rescued after a stint in limbo

* 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. 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/{{Steam}}, and UsefulNotes/XboxLiveArcade, 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... [[NoExportForYou Or they aren't even available in your region at all.]]

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.

* [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes/LiveActionTVRescued Live-action TV]]

* [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes/{{Rescued}} Other media]]

Try and get the rights to rerelease it yourself if you have the means to do so? You can try... but whoever holds the rights to it either has no interest in doing so, or demands a ludicrous amount of money that you cannot possibly afford.