<< Money Can't Solve Everything | The Record Industry's Secret Plan To Give Music Away...Yeah Right >>

Boxee's Deceit (and a bunch of personal junk about the future of this blog)

March 7, 2009 01:27 by author

So there have been no posts this week. Sorry about that. I've been sick (not dying sick, but flu sick). But that's not really the reason (I'm in fact sick in bed now so that kind of blows "I was sick" as an excuse). The truth is, I think I've hit my one year slump.

I was told from the beginning that a year is the cut off date for blogging. If you can make it that far you're a blogger, if not your URL can be added to the trash heap of blogs that went strong for a couple months and then just stopped being updated.

This blog might have been headed for that trash heap if not for the actions of Boxee.

Boxee is a company that takes video on the web and reformats it for different devices (there are also social features to Boxee but I'll direct you to their page for that). Hulu, an online video provider that is used by many big name companies, blocked Boxee. This was at the request of their big name content providers.

Rather than accept that Boxee took matters into their own hands and created a work around.

Hulu, the joint Web venture between NBC and Fox, is clearly not interested in being part of the Boxee interface and made a change today, in response to Boxee’s announcement, so that only authorized Web browsers can access its video, according to a person briefed on the change.

A Boxee spokesman, Andrew Kippen, acknowledged that Hulu was again inaccessible through Boxee and said the company was “looking into the situation.”

Now if you'll forgive the odd aside I need to go back to my personal story for a sec.

I didn't want to become a blogger. I don't crave attention. In fact, I generally try to avoid it. But the problem was always situations like this one with Boxee.

Boxee is stealing this content. If I walk onto my porch, put a bowl of candy out and say everyone is welcome to it except you...well, I'm a jerk. But that's my right to be a jerk. The candy's mine, its on my property, and I've told you to stay away. If you come and get some candy you are guilty of trespassing and theft.

This isn't a hard concept to grasp. You would think at least one person in the tech blogosphere would stand up and say "Boxee is wrong." But I'm looking at Techmeme right now and I can't find anything but praise for them.

That is why this blog will continue to exist. Because even if I'm wrong, even if Boxee isn't acting dishonestly, someone needs to bring up the possibility. Someone needs to make all the people rooting for them see it. Or at least try to make them see it.

So that's why I'll be around for some time to come. My audience is small and my opinion (at least in the tech blogosphere) is unpopular but it needs to be said and I don't see anyone else jumping up to take my place saying it.

Or...this could all just be the drugs talking and this could be my final post. Wouldn't THAT be ironic!

Tags:
Categories: Tech Punditry
Actions: E-mail | Kick it! | Permalink | comment

Comments (6) | RSS comment feed

Comment RSS

Comments

March 6. 2009 23:47

Hi Tom,

I just wanted to let you know that your blog is a regular read for me, and I think you have some interesting insights on a lot of tech news stories. It would be a shame to not see "TomsTechBlog" show up in bold in Google Reader any more, but power to you, whatever you decide to do. It has been fun reading your thoughts, thanks for sharing.

Kevan

March 6. 2009 23:55

Thanks, that means a lot to me. I always appreciate it when you drop me a comment. And that’s not just the drugs talking (though I have to say, I’m never taken prescription drugs before and they pack more of a punch than I thought they would. I’m half afraid that I’m going to wake up tomorrow and realize everything I typed tonight was gibberish)

Tom

March 7. 2009 01:30

No worries, Tom, I think you'll find that you were quite coherent (though I agree with you about the pharmaceuticals... potent stuff!) Frankly it's disappointing to only see one person in the entire blogosphere stand up and say something about this. The whole web sub-culture seems to be obsessed with sticking it to "the man", ethics be damned. The problem is that we are teaching a generation of new web users to believe that content does not have to be paid for, and that you are entitled to whatever you want as long as you can jimmy the lock off of it.

Good on ya, Tom, for this post. Here's hoping you feel a better soon.

Kevan

March 7. 2009 02:34

Your analogy wouldn't even work in the real world. Try putting that bowl of candy out with a sign "everyone welcome but glass wearers" and sue a glass-wearer for theft and trespassing. You'd be laughed out of court.

But the analogy is broken anyway, because digital content isn't candy. Here's a better one: someone puts up a notice on their blog: "C# developers not wanted here." Would you say that by visiting that blog you're "trespassing" the server and "stealing" the content?

"Doing something that someone else doesn't want" isn't illegal, as your badly contrived example tries to show, or even immoral. Boxee and Hulu are two commercial entities, with differing interests. They're both well within their rights trying to change the situation to their advantage. There is no good side and bad side here, just an everyday, market-driven tug-of-war.

Carme

March 7. 2009 11:31

@Carme - With all due respect I think you're missing the point. The issue here is that this digital content belongs to the people who are providing it to Hulu.

Boxee isn't "doing something that Hulu doesn't want" they are "taking content that belongs to someone else." That's the issue. This content belongs to the content providers and the content providers have specifically told Boxee they are not welcome to it.

Digital content might not be a physical object like candy but it can still be owned by someone which mean taking it from that someone is just like taking a physical object like candy from someone.

Oh, and on the analogy, you say "I'd be laughed out of court" but you give no reason why I'd be laughed out of court so that's not really a counter point on your part. But, just to make the point, I'll give you a digital analogy.

What Boxee is doing is the same as spam blogs that scrape bloggers posts and then repost them on blogs designed to push spam. I've never met a blogger who was in favor of that so how can they now be in favor of Boxee doing essentially the same thing to Hulu.

Tom

March 8. 2009 03:59

i wish you are recovering from your flu.

Inventory

Comments are closed

About Me

Hi, I’m Tom and I run the IT department for a non-profit agency which provides treatment to special-needs children. Though I will (like any blogger) comment on technology in general my main goal is to detail how I’m trying to use technology to help treat the children we serve and its my hope that blogging will allow me to connect with people who can help in that goal.

More...