A Slingbox is a device that you connect to your TV (that is directly to the cable or to a settop box or a TiVo) that allows you watch and control your TV from a device on the internet (a laptop, smartphone, etc.). So if I have something on my TiVo and I'm traveling, I can watch it on my laptop. It actually shows a remote on the screen so you control the TiVo from the laptop (pausing, fast forwarding, etc.). It's basically just broadcasting your TV over the net, but it's not really broadcasting as you're the only person who can watch it (is that singlecasting?). As the VCR introduced time-shifting, slingbox brings us place-shifting; you don't have to be home to watch TV. I don't really have a need for one, but I have a few friends who love theirs.
VCRs and TiVos have attracted lawsuits and slingbox is too and from of all organizations, it's Major League Baseball. MLB makes a lot of money on the TV rights to baseball games, but they also make money from stadium tickets. To encourage people to buy tickets and not just watch the game at home MLB only broadcasts the game in the local market if the stadium sells out. This is known as blacking out the game and is more of an issue in smaller markets.
"In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Esq. a lawyer for the league's Advanced Media division said Slingbox's capability to placeshift MLB content--that is, allow owners to watch their subscription channels from a remote location--is illegal, and MLB is mulling a lawsuit. This is not the first time Sling has taken heat for allegedly flouting broadcasting rules. A year ago MLB's vice president of business accused Sling users of stealing from cable operators that have paid to broadcast local games." It could also be that they want people to pay for the own MLB.TV service.
"This is a classic instance of copyright owners trying to suppress innovation purely because it empowers consumers," Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro said in a statement. "There is no infringement or piracy here--consumers are simply watching content they lawfully purchase (or receive free over-the-air) in a different physical location."
Good move MLB, sue a company making your biggest fans happy by letting them watch a game they can legally watch at home, while they happen to be away.
1 comment:
IMHO there's no way MLB can win this. If I can watch the game at home, I, the owner of the TV and subscriber to the cable line, can watch the TV...period. There's nothing in my contract with comcast that says I need to sit in the living room to do it. And if I'm using my slingbox (I don't own one, but if I did...), I'd still be watching my own TV. It seems to me that the only way I could truly do something illegal here is to fly to Boston to visit you, laptop in tow, bring up a Bosox game on my Pittsburgh-based TV/slingbox/laptop, and let YOU watch it. and even that's far-fetched.
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