"On the other hand, as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Sony Betamax case several years ago, technology that has substantial non-infringing uses cannot be outlawed simply because pirates might also use the technology for infringing activities, " Weiss said.

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Betamax in which one format prevailed, but the analogy is poor because Sony, Betamax' main backer, had the more expensive option.

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Sony engineers invented Betamax, only to see the cheaper VHS become the standard for videocassette recorders.

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