The VCR was introduced into the home television market in the United States during the mid- 1970s. As the sale of VCRs increased in the early 1980s, more and more viewers began taping programs off the air. Program producers and other copyright owners went to court to stop what they believed to be infringement of their copyrights. Universal Studios sued Sony Corporation, the inventor and patent holder of the Beta­ max VCR, in hopes of either stopping home taping of television programs or charging royalties for such copying. A U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in Universal's favor, but the matter went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued its famous "Betamax" decision in 1984. In that decision, the justices granted permission for home television viewers to record television shows for purposes of viewing them later at a more convenient time (i.e., time shifting). The high court ruled that such copying constituted fair use and would not hurt the market value of the programming itself to program producers. The court's decision was vague on the issue of "warehousing" tape copies. For example, if a viewer is a fan of a soap opera such as As The World Turns and makes copies of each and every episode with the intention of building a library of the entire program series for repeated playback in the future, that would be warehousing. The court may have left this matter deliberately vague, however, because it would be virtually impossible to enforce a ban on such warehousing without violating a person's right to privacy. The unauthorized copying issue is raised again each time a new electronic media technology is introduced to the public. The courts are likely to continue to support the concept of time shifting and other, similar personal uses of these technologies in the future. Programming schedules have begun to reflect this practice. In the United Kingdom, for example, educational programs for both schools and the Open University are shown through the night on the assumption that teachers and other users will record them for use during the day.

     The introduction of the DVR in the late 1990s made copying and storing programs still easier for viewers. The digital technology required no bulky tapes to purchase, no clock to set for timed recording, and no storage and searching for tapes when playback is desired. Instead, the television set is connected to a digital hard drive comparable to that in a computer. By subscribing to a commercial service, viewers are able to select programs weeks in advance and, with the touch of a button, command the machine to record and store the program. The user may even program the machine to collect every episode of a television series, or to search for similar programs. The digital recorder also allows viewer control of "live television," pausing the recording, delaying initial viewing, and fast-forward through commercials.

     The TiVo was the first digital recorder on the market, soon followed by Replay. The first Replay machines automatically skipped commercials in recorded material. The technology also allowed for digital "file swapping." Faced with lawsuits, Replay removed these capabilities from the machines, though it is still possible to fast-forward through the interruptions.

     One other form of time-shifting also developed at the end of the decade. "Re-purposing" became a programming strategy in which television distributors provided the same program in different venues, often within very short time periods. Re-purposing meant that a program appearing on network television might appear on a cable network later in the same week. While the practice was frustrating for traditional broadcasters who realized viewers might forgo their network programming for other preferences when the content would be available at a later time, it was financially attractive to the owners of multiple distribution outlets. To date the practice is not widely used.