Slingbox

Slingbox, created by Sling Media of San Mateo, California is a brick-sized device that routes live television over broadband to a portable device anywhere in the world with no subscription fees. Several stores were sold out of the $250 Slingboxes the very first day.

Slingbox is an example of place-shifting technology, which is part of a handful of new ventures that are trying to duplicate the success of time-shifting technologies such as TiVo. It attaches to a cable box, satellite receiver, DVR or television set and diverts the signal to a PC or laptop running Slingbox software. There are also plans for Slingbox to eventually transmit to cell phones, PDAs and other portable devices connected to the Internet.

Sling Media and other leading companies in the place-shifting business have already attracted the attention of cable television operators that are interested in the potential of partnering with them because place-shifting technology could work well as an incentive for cable subscribers to purchase broadband services.

Television lovers, technophiles and efficiency freaks are overjoyed at the prospect, but copyright holders are wary of this new technology that threatens them with its potential for copyright abuse and the necessity of filing lawsuits to prevent it. Place-shifting technology is also problematic for copyright holders because it circumvents “proximity control,” restrictions upon the distribution of programming to specific geographic regions and periods of time.

The Internet and other technologies have changed the definitions of proximity as it relates to geography and time and the entertainment industry is going to have to eventually deal with that reality because the natural force of progress slows for no one. If new technologies are making tangible products into intangible products then existing business models need to be reevaluated and evolved so that the concerns of businesses and the rights of consumers can be addressed in a manner that benefits all.