End of an era. Long live Betamax
Sony have said they will stop selling Betamax takes in March 2016 or earlier if stocks run out. This marks the end of an era, although the machines have not been available since 2002, by no longer making the video cassettes the Betamax video format now marks another point in its forty plus year history.

Betamax is still relevant to our lives.
Betamax is still very relevant to our lives even if we don't realise it. 30 years ago in January 1984, the US Supreme Court ruled that recording television shows on Betamax video cassettes so that you could watch them at a later time did not constitute copyright infringement. This ruling paved the way for all kinds of technology that we've since used to make copies of copyrighted material, including CD burners, MP3 players and DVRs.