Boxee Routes Around Hulu Ban
from the this-ought-to-be-fun dept
We were among those surprised and confused by content providers trying to prevent Boxee from accessing Hulu content. If you don't know, Boxee is basically an interface for watching video content from the internet on your TV. You hook up a computer to your television and effectively use Boxee as a more TV friendly browser. As part of the list of internet content you could view, Hulu was a popular option, but Hulu's content partners protested -- perhaps because they're negotiating with cable companies on exclusive internet rights. But, there seemed to be absolutely no legal reason to stop Boxee from offering the content. After all, Boxee was just a browser for the content, like Firefox or IE or Safari.Well, now it looks like Boxee is trying to push the matter a bit. It hasn't re-enabled access to Hulu exactly, but it has launched an RSS reader that will handle video, including Hulu's own RSS feeds. It's not a perfect solution, but effectively Boxee is pointing out to Hulu and its content partners, that they've made the content available for consuming, and all Boxee users are doing is consuming it as offered. It will certainly be interesting to see how Hulu responds...
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Filed Under: content providers, hollywood, tv
Companies: boxee, hulu
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How will they respond?
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The tug of war
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Re: How will they respond?
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"....perhaps because they're negotiating with cable companies ..."
"But, there seemed to be absolutely no legal reason to..."
So why exactly are the Masnicks so confused - are you under the impression that because something might be legal you are obliged to include it in your business model ? !!!
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More than meets the eye, or...
I have a Samsung HD TV with really nice input port for my computer so I can watch Hulu and Netflix over that line quite nicely. Boxee sounds like the exact same thing, only with a bit more polish so the non-geek can use it.
How could the studios tell them they can't feed on Hulu content any more than they could tell me not to output to my TV? And if the device just pulls content over the standard web interface, how did they shut Boxee out?
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please read, but also COMPREHEND the blog, thanks!
>>are you under the impression that because something might be legal you are obliged to >>include it in your business model ? !!!
I believe that he's referring to the legality of monopolized content being discriminately offered.
That is to say it raises the legal issue of whether or not this content IS monopolized to the point that CERTAIN "viewing options" are discriminated against arbitrarily (or worse).
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I'm so sick of these idiot media companies.
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Re:
So why exactly are the Masnicks so confused - are you under the impression that because something might be legal you are obliged to include it in your business model ? !!!
Well, I never said, nor implied that. I'm not sure how anyone could read the post above and interpret it that way unless they were a bit behind on their reading comprehension skills... or they were paid to be willfully ignorant.
Which is it?
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No legal reason?
Actually, there is: freedom of contract. If Hulu does not want to deal with Boxee, it does not have to do so.
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Workaround
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GOOD GRIEF! f
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Re: More than meets the eye, or...
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XBMC?
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