One key copyright legal decision significantly shifted the future of American media. In the mid-1980s, the Supreme Court ruled that a viewer using a VCR to copy and “time-shift” a television broadcast for their personal use fell under fair use provisions and thus was not an infringement of copyright. This decision, widely known as the Betamax case, led to the growth of the VCR technology and a broad array of video copying and recording possibilities to be discussed in Chapter 6. Not all copying practices are protected by the Betamax case, as online file-sharing and tape-trading do not constitute personal fair use, but the case allowed technology companies to create and sell devices enabling both infringing and non-infringing uses. Today, recording broadcasts, time-shifting, and use of recorded material within classrooms or for critical commentaries are all fair uses that are exercised regularly across America, even though the television industry was tried to push for policies to restrict such uses.

Copyright arises when an individual or organisation creates a work, and applies to a work if it is regarded as original, and exhibits a degree of labour, skill or judgement.

In the UK, BBC have started something they're calling iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/channels/iplayer.shtml, which might be an alternative to piracy!