This was during an era where VHS was standard and DVD’s were just brand new at the time (before streaming sites existed). Chains like Blockbuster were booming back then with people renting movies or even TV shows for a fee but have to return them by an expected date, what happens is that in order to “keep” a copy, people would use a PC with disc burning software to burn the contents from that DVD onto a blank one.
Know those blank white DVDs? Basically those were used on storing a “pirated” disc for themselves before returning the rented copy back at the video rental store. When I was a kid, I remember encountering what clearly a pirated copy of The Prince of Egypt (so who ever pirated it kept the rented copy) since the disc art is crappy & low quality (it’s been printed then glued onto a blank DVD used for copying upon peeling it off).
Yep! I saw and rewatched tons of movies this way as a kid. We had two VCRs and my stepdad copied most of what we watched for a handful of years, but I can’t remember when exactly it started. We had Road House on a copied tape, so it was likely in the early 90s.
He also had some copied Betamax tapes from the 80s too, so he was a pretty early adopter of piracy. I first saw Labyrinth on Betamax!