The Challenges and Rewards of 'Place-Shifting'

Grooves writes "Ars Technica has an insightful look at the challenges facing place-shifting. The article talks about new European legislation that could require broadcast licensing for all place-shifting devices, and they review some of the fair use problems in the US and how they could hurt innovation." From the article: "A few cables here, a few networking adjustments there, and you can use a product like the Slingbox or the software-based Orb to watch your TV (or TiVo, or DVD player) from just about anywhere you can get a network connection, be it your office, your hotel room, or the other side of the planet. Yet what makes place-shifting devices so powerful also makes them appear very dangerous to established entertainment and media companies."

Slashdot affected too.

[Tackhead]

"Nothing for you to see here. Please move along."

If I pay royalties, can I see it here?

I hope...

[silicon-pyro]

...place shifting survives the storm.

In my opinion, my slingbox is the easiest way to watch the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica because my Mom has the only cable connection in the house, and its up there on the main floor.

Never mind that. I'm moving out soon. I just hope my sweet new invention isn't outlawed. A self-loading and self-ejecting VCR that prints mailing labels then calls a courier to get all new episodes to me anywhere in the world. Now just where am I going to find a huge cache of blank betamax tapes.

Old Media is dead

[hsmith]

I love how their obvious solution is to buy monopoly protection through legislation, instead of altering their business models to adapt to changing markets.

Re:Solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Because some people enjoy watching TV. What if they started regulating and taxing self-righteousness? You'd be up in arms over that one, I bet.

Re:No way to stop it.

[FirstTimeCaller]

I'm from the government and I'd like to hear more about this evil bit of which you speak.

Re:The problem isnt you

[drDugan]

you imply that losing profits is a resulting problem that must be adressed.

this mentality is somthing that must be addressed loudly and clearly - as it drives significant stupidity in legislation and mob thinking.

repeat ten times: "it is not the job of the state to maintain profits for any company or industry"
repeat ten times: "the state exists to protect our welfare and ALLOW lawful commerce"

the market will decide which companies fail. when the state steps in and trys to jig with the market, corruption and grift are the natural result. this is why we have absurd copyright length now (resulting in new market solutions like cc licensing) this legislation seems at first pass to be another example.

Re:Solution

[Anonymous Coward]

What if they started regulating and taxing self-righteousness?

With the amount of it here at slashdot, taxing self-righteousness would pay off the national debt in months.

Re:Cable/Satellite Companies Will Try To Ban

[zotz]

[The slingbox and its ilk attach to the cable box outputs so you could use a single cable box to broadcast video to all computers in your house.]

I plan to use strategically placed mirrors and speaking tubes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaking_tube [wikipedia.org]

How will they try to outlaw that??? [GRIN] [WINK]

all the best,

drew

Re:No way to stop it.

[wronzki]

I'm from the government and I'd like to hear more about this evil bit of which you speak.

RFC3514 http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3514.html [faqs.org]