Sling Strikes Out With MLB
from the grounding-into-a-double-play dept
Sling Media's been coming under fire from content providers and mobile operators that are unhappy with its technology, which lets users place-shift TV and other media content from their home to a laptop or mobile device across the internet. Sports leagues don't like it either, and Major League Baseball is renewing its attack, saying Sling users are stealing from TV broadcasters that have paid for local rights. It's hard to understand where they're coming from -- it isn't as if Sling users are viewing pirated content, they're simply viewing content they're paying to watch in their home location. While Sling contends that laws and user agreements allow people to then watch that content wherever they like, MLB disagrees -- and says users should pay up. It's hard to see this position as much more than a blatant attempt at a money-grab, since, as we noted, the content it already being paid for, so users aren't "stealing" anything. It seems that MLB's greed outweighs its interest in services that make it easier for fans to follow the game and their favorite teams, and to do it in an easy, enjoyable way. Sling makes it easier for fans to follow their home team and watch games on their own schedule -- you'd think that MLB would be excited by technologies and services that can make its content more valuable, but unless they directly line its pockets, apparently it isn't.
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first!
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Cheese
Second, this is just another example of companies (leagues) failing to provide what consumers want and trying to protect their proprietary business models.
Third, who cares.
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Do what I do
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MLB is just upset...
That's all I have to say about that.
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Business Models...
Microsoft - business model
SCO - business model
*AA - business model
MLB - business model
Shutup about the damn business models already. What it all really comes down to is greed.
Microsoft - greed
SCO - greed
*AA - MAJOR GREED
MLB - greed
{whar}
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Re: Business Models...
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This ENTIRE thing is so rediculous...
For F's sake! Back in the days of the original Napster, I was one of the ones who lost thier account for DOWNLOADING metallica songs ( i moved them to a new directory after they finished) Because it was a huge pain in the butt to get TAPES into MP3 format back in those days when my Hard drive was 3gigs and a raw WAV file occupied 50MB. Now didn't I ALREADY own rights to those songs if I bought the tapes in 1985?
Now they COULD have offered electronic copies of these songs in 1999...but i wouldn't have paid for them since I ALREADY OWNED AN F'N COPY. So essentially they were punishing ME for thier own SHORTCOMMINGS.
This is the same thing here. Sling beat the cable companies to the punch of place shifting and now they're all pissed off. WHERE THE F are the industries R&D departments?
F them! This kind of crap makes me want to pirate just out of spite. If I missed the boat like that at my job (biomedical industry) I would have been fired almost instantly. I expect other industries to hold themselves to the same standard.
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Shaking my head
It is amusing that one never ever hears the RIAA, MPAA or other companies/industry associations talking about improving their product or service. They would rather tighten the control they have over content and sue people for infringment, or make it difficult to move content between devices and so on. Why can't I buy WKRP In Cincinnati on DVD? Because no one knows who owns the music that is used in that show to determine royalty payments. What a waste.
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Re: Shaking my head
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Convoluted Regional Broadcast Rights
Unless the Giants game you want to watch isn't being shown in Chicago or the Giants game you paid for under an expensive cable or satellite package is blacked-out because of a conflicting agreement with Fox or ESPN.
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What's the difference?
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What's good for the goose ...
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Wrong Reaction
Of course, it's easier to be afraid of change than to embrace it.
I personally think Sling is only the beginning of a long series of Internet based television products... and with the rising popularity of high speed Internet connections, more and more companies will start offering services which can be viewed/listened to/controlled/ etc. on line. Think domotica... make sure you turned off the oven? Log in to your house account... stuff like that. Inevitably there will be companies and services which are not happy with these technological advancements... Eventually they will come around.
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MLB Licks
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It's that type of mentality from which products like the Slingbox are born in the first place. In other words, the greedy are the victims of their own shortsightedness.
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Their lack of foresight and common sense can be described with many words, but amusing wouldn't be one of them.....
"Why can't I buy WKRP In Cincinnati on DVD? Because no one knows who owns the music that is used in that show to determine royalty payments. What a waste."
Not exactly. The problem is they do know. And that means they would have to pay royalties for any recognizable song played by the DJ's at WKRP.
Go here for more info: (not mine, just good info)
http://members.allstream.net/~jacjud/wkrpmusic.html
http://members.allstream.net/~jacjud/wkr p.html
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real reason
The thing they're probably most afraid of is instead of paying for a service to watch MLB games from other cities why don't I just find somebody on the net that has a slingbox plugged in at a broadcasting location.
With the web 2.0 many-to many communications, it is not too hard to make such arrangement.
I'm suspecting that this is the reasoning for MLB's attack.
It's still darn funny. Almost as funny as having DVD's with regions locked in and DVD drives that only allow for the region to be changed 5 times.
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Stealing Or Slavery?
Their problems, and their aging "business models" (I find this expression indispensible, if you want to complain, focus on "utilize") are based partly on the fact that they "own" you. Or at least they think they do.
For example, the commenter above who wanted to watch a Yankees game in London is "owned" by the Devil Rays franchise owner. MLB basically sold this human to that organization. They have also sold us to certain TV channels, who now have the exclusive right, per the MLB, to deliver us programming and force us to watch their selection of commercials or pay their fees in the case of pay TV.
So now, when we "Sling" they basically treat us like runaway slaves; "stealing" our freedom from the rights owners who "bought" us.
Who the heck gave them the right to sell or own me in the first place? If I have some value as a potential customer or viewer, then it's up to ME to decide where I spend that value - not the MLB. Even if their silly contracts stipulate it as so.
But who created these arcane, highly complicated business models, rights relationships, cross-payment structures, and blackout rules? Not me. Not any elected government empowered to make laws. I didn't sign that contract. Why should I be bound to their messy, old-school ways of doing business?
Sling on.
(Apologies to anyone particularly sensitive to slavery issues. Clearly the current "ownership" is at a less significant level.)
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Chicago Blackouts
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