MLB doesn’t like Sling Box
You know that disclaimer at the beginning of every major televised sporting event, prohibiting reproduction for public or private use? It looks like it’s not just legal posturing after all. Major League Baseball, purveyors of America’s pastime, is considering a lawsuit against Sling Media of Sling Box fame. Michael Mellis, lawyer for the MLB, spoke with the The Hollywood Reporter and expressed concern of Sling’s ability to record and time/placeshift content, particularly as it pertains to MLB games. While no legal action is imminent MLB is reserving the right to bring suit in the near future. There’s no question that using your Sling Box to rebroadcast games for anyone except the owner of the Box and the cable agreement is in violation of copyright laws, but is it really productive for MLB to pursue this type of legal action? The risk of fan backlash is always high. Is this a classic case of big business trying to quell an unstoppable force, or does MLB have a point here?
[Via Crave]
I dont think they will get a backlash as their is so many legit ways to get the games. Also i think it is worth it if they think that this hurts their mlb.tv products. also I’m not sure that their is enough sling people to get this enough attention.
WHERE IS IT T-MOBIL BB 8320. DOSE ANYONEKNOW
Slingbox would not be comitting the violation of “rebroadcasting a game”. The person using the device improperly would be at fault. Law Enforcement does not go after General Motors because an armed robber is driving a Buick???
Besides, Slingbox is simply permitting me to watch MY television and a MLB game while away from home.
The need to sue is a part of the american way. If they didn’t do it someelse would. Let’s just let them have fun.
MLB wants their MLB>tv to be a monopoly. Just a few weeks ago with the help of DirecTV they were able to strong arm the cable companies into carrying mlb.tv at a ridiculous rate. Its all about the money for Bud. Screw the fans.
This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Slingbox doesn’t allow time shifting. It only allows me to watch my subscribed cable wherever I want. With attendance down at most games, why would they want to alienate even one fan? Baseball sucks anyway. I’d rather be outside looking at girls in bikinis during the summer than spending hours watching a lousy baseball game on my computer.
your wrong about the cable deal, the govt. forced mlb to make a deal with cable companies allowing them to have a mlb pay-per-view package, they were going to make the package a directv exclusive. I also think that was a bad move by mlb they should not have had to be forced to do that but it really is their choice to broadcast where they want i guess.
As for this I think that your going to get a fight if it hurts mlb.tv as sling would actually hurt their business model. As bad as it sounds it is pretty clear that the user and the service is rebroadcasting the games, neither one works on its own. I agree that they should not push this but as a business you do have to protect yourself.
im not wrong about the cable deal. if the government DIDNT step in then there would be NO baseball package for any cable company. Check out bostonsucks.net there was plenty of coverage on the subject a couple months ago.
my real question is, if they go after Sling whats to stop them from going after, Orb, Hava or Sony’s Location Free TV? And whats to stop the NFL, NBA or NHL from doing the same? Maybe its time for them to rethink their broadcast restrictions. Let the dark days of media blackouts end!
i misunderstood your first post about the cabe package your right. But they put the rebroadcast warning up there for almost all those sports events for a reason and they still have every right to enforce that. As is – they have control over their content, we pay for the ability to watch content, not out ability to own content, at least on cable or satelite.
In many court battles, the plaintiff has to be able to prove that they have suffered a loss. In this case, however, it seems difficult to prove such a thing. In order to “sling” an MLB broadcast to myself, I’d have to pay for it. How is MLB losing anything? While technically, I am rebroadcasting it to myself, I just don’t see the real dilemma here. In fact, I would imagine that by NOT allowing paying fans and Sling owners to stream to themselves, MLB would be losing revenues, however miniscule they might be, from this user group. As I stated above, if I could stream a game to myself, I might be willig to pay for it so I don’t have to sit inside watching the game in the middle of summer. If not, I’m still going to be outside, but I will probably forgo watching the game. This is just a case of Corporate causing problems because they can.
mlb.tv allows users to view the games online via live streams. By allowing sling users to watch the games online they would be in fact directly losing out on revenue that would be generated by mlb.tv, that I believe would be their motive and their loss. I dont think that their are enough sling users to warrent any action but as it grows, they will have problems with the major sports as they all have the rebroadcast warnings.
by cutting out sling users i do not see how they would be hurting themselves as their are not alot of sling users and they get their revenue from the networks, not the users.
Fair enough. I guess they could prove that they are losing revenues. Not from me though. I wouldn’t pay for it either way. I just hate how litigious companies are these days. I guarantee that this lawsuit would end up costing more than the lost revenues. Lawyers will make all the money, and the taxpayers will have to foot the bill for the court costs. Hopefully they won’t exercise the “right” they’ve reserved to prosecute.
lol @ the mlb….losers