What is time-shifting?
Time-shifting is nothing new. In fact, time-shifting has been around as long as people have recorded information. Time-shifting is simply the act of viewing or listening to a piece of media some point after it originally occurred. You could even argue that this article allows the author to time-shift his thoughts so that you can read them later. For years now a television viewer with patience could program a VCR and record live television to view at a later date. What’s new, however, is a blitz of game-changing technology, redefining consumer expectations and making time-shifting a central feature of media consumption. Put simply, technology is no longer a limitation. In over 10% of households, the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) is promoting media anarchy. DVRs have taken the key attributes of VCRs and made the experience easier to use, with higher quality and the ability to view a program that has not even finished recording yet. As an indication of proliferation, the DVR poster child,
Time-shifting or timeshifting is a practice in which people make copies of media to listen to or view at a later point in time. For example, someone might set a digital video recorder (DVR) to record a television program which will air while the person is at work, so that he or she can watch the program later. This practice has attracted some controversy, including several law suits debating its legality and impact on the broadcasting industry. One of the most critical court decisions in regard to time-shifting was made in 1984 in the Betamax Decision, in which an American court determined that time-shifting was fair use. The court arrived at the decision on the basis of the assumption that the time-shifted programming would only be used for personal use, and it would not be copied or distributed. As long as someone was accessing programming legally, he or she would be allowed to record it for future viewing. Television shows are commonly time-shifted by people with busy schedules who
