You may be too young to remember this, but... Here's an article plucked from the dusty archives of Billboard, specifically May 15th, 1971 (it cost $1.25 newstand.) The article discusses the urgent anti-piracy issues of the moment, including the need to grant broader copyrights on recordings to protect against a surging piracy problem.
By 1970, the piracy problem had more than tripled. “Senator Scott pointed out the rapidly increasing phenomenon of record piracy, from $30 million in 1968 to a record $100 million in 1970, with one out of every four tapes believed to be a pirated product," the article notes. “'The recording industry, artists, musicians, performers, and record distributors are all facing a massive economic challenge from record pirates," the Senator continued. Those recording protections were soon granted on federal (and international) levels.
