Given that my column today focuses on the WIPO Broadcast Treaty, the issue of time shifting and DRM comes to mind. The concept of time shifting arose from the U.S. Supreme Court decision involving the legality of the Sony Betamax machine. Arguments before the court focused on the fact that taping television programs simply enabled users to shift the time when they watch the taped program. More than 20 years later, the VCR (and increasingly DVRs and PVRs) are commonplace and consumers give little thought to the legal consequences of copying television programs.
While such activity is protected in the U.S., there is nothing in the Copyright Act in Canada that would expressly permit time shifting.
