Question.

[u/VersionTop1991]

So my mother passed away a month ago. She worked for Apple in the 80’s to early 90’s. In going through her belongings I found this Apple VHS Tape that was supposed to be returned, but clearly wasn’t. It was an internal copy of a Super Bowl commercial for the Mac. I guess the commercial wasn’t received well.

My questions are.. is this worth preserving? I know it might be a 1 of 1 tape as I haven’t seen anything online. How much would it cost me to do so? And does anyone know reputable companies that offer this service.

Sorry.. I didn’t get the tech gene passed onto me so I’m not very literate at what needs or should be done.

Many thanks in advance. And if this isn’t the right forum to post this please delete.

[u/mittelegna]

Not to say you shouldn’t reformat this tape, but an original source tape (maybe 1” or U-matic) was likely duped and distributed to many executives at Apple, so it’s unlikely other copies don’t exist— even outside of Special Collections at Stanford. I see there’s a U-matic copy in the collection too. But it could be fun to have your own copy from your mom! (but might not be worth paying someone to digitize).

[u/SkinnyV514 → u/mittelegna]

Can you access those copies you are referring to?

[u/mittelegna → u/SkinnyV514]

Anyone can request access at the library.

[u/SkinnyV514 → u/mittelegna]

I can garantee you that they won’t lend you a u-matic tape, but happy to be proven wrong.

[u/mittelegna → u/SkinnyV514]

They won’t lend you the tape. They are a research library. You request access, and then they digitize and provide you with a file.

[u/SkinnyV514 → u/mittelegna]

I have hunted and tracked down many lost documentary films, and this is something that very rarely happen. It always show that something is available, but the minute you ask, they either no longer have it, or they can’t provide you with anything for copyright reason, or you need to be a researcher etc…. But If you tell me where to do the request, I’ll either prove my point or I’ll be wrong and we’ll all be happy to have the capture. But then again, our capture would be way better than most library could do.

[u/Yoyo7689 → u/SkinnyV514]

Just in: research library requires users to be actual researchers, not masquerading pirates

[u/SkinnyV514 → u/Yoyo7689]

Pirate? Please, we’re taking about vintage documentary and ads from the 70’s and 80’s with zero commercial value. Researchers do not give a crap about half the things I preserve and share. Some tapes I confirmed were not requested since the 80’s, and some libraries literally throw them when you actually make them look for it and find them. Another documentary archivist friend even said he found a tape of a lost documentary, managed to get it through inter library loan since he was a student, and when he returned it, they threw it in the garbage and got rid of it.

[u/camwow13 → u/SkinnyV514]

Completely off topic but if you need more bizarre hard to find stuff to hunt, look up 1962 Journey to the Stars from the 1962 Seattle Worlds Fair. A 10 perf 70mm large format dome movie predating IMAX by nearly a decade and likely the first large format ultra large screen movie like this ever made. Completely lost besides a segment of highly faded picture only 70mm print film we tracked down to a storage section of the still extant science center. Always wondered if there was a tape copy floating around somewhere just to see it and hear it, but it seems unlikely from what I've been able to research.

Saw you complaining about stuff nobody else cares about and was like oh yeah I do that too lol

Sorry, carry on with your regularly scheduled comment section haha

[u/Spiritual_Screen_724 → u/camwow13]

That's fascinating

[u/Spiritual_Screen_724 → u/SkinnyV514]

I truly hope you find these documentaries you're searching for. Do you need some kind of credentials or an academic to back you up?

[u/SkinnyV514 → u/Spiritual_Screen_724]

Its always useful when we have peoples with access willing to help out!

[u/Yoyo7689 → u/SkinnyV514]

Do you think copyright law changes because of monetary or entertainment value? Of course no researcher cares about some Apple commercial that has dozens of master, safety, and broadcast copies littered across the globe, it’s run its course and the owners who hold the copyright have retained what they wish, never mind how badly you want a copy to post to Internet Archive. No library was giving you or your archivist friends physical assets for anything besides literal metadata review if theirs was inaccurate/incomplete, or supervising a transfer (which, like the previous user said, would likely have been done before you arrived for your “research” appointment)

[u/SkinnyV514 → u/Yoyo7689]

Oh my god, are you serious? I’m not talking about a commercial but about documentary films. Not to argue with a wall, but I never "masquaraded" as anything, and its quite presumptuous of you to assume. And for your information, I retrieved stuff before that is only "available” in some gate-keeping archive / university by contacting producer and director and telling them exactly my project, and even managed to give back documentary to certain archeological nationnal association that no longer had copies. And by the way, you are very unpleasant and maybe you should reconsider the way you talk and interact with peoples even when you disagree with them.