Friday 9 March 2007

Time shift

Time shifting is the act of recording broadcast television to watch at a later time. When the first video cassette recorders came on the market, the television industry moaned that it would be the death of television. They let everyone know this in no uncertain terms. At the outset, to them the VCR was a tool of the devil.

When video is downloaded rather than broadcast, the phrase "time shifting" loses all meaning. Nobody talks about your right to "time shift" DVDs, for example, because that just means "watching". Ditto for television shows on iTunes. Why is that so different from broadcasting? Why is that particular medium subject to terrifying stories of users setting their own schedule when that's the one medium that forces someone else's schedule?

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I just don't understand it.
PPS - Setting our own schedule is now the norm rather than the exception.

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