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Instead of fighting this practice the intertainment companies should wake up and provide a similar service to subscribers. If someone is willing to pay Joe Smoe a hundred dollars a month Time Warner and comany should figure out a way to take the money. Idiots!

We are becoming a World society. Our Media should not be controled by Money Hungry Large Corporations if I'm willing to pay I should be able to Watch! Period No matter where I may live.

This discussion reminds me of the old saying "the more things change the more they stay the same." 30 yrs ago or so, the film industry was decrying the the eventual reality of films on video and worrying about their piece of the pie. Guess what? They wisely chose to join rather than contiue to fight and what happened?-- The film industry found a new cash cow that they hadn't dreamed of before and have since then made money hand-over-fist. The point is, these money grubbing turds need to wake-up AGAIN and re-think their business paradigm.'thars money to be made in dem new tecnologies' so they can choose to sit on their hands and watch the world pass them by or welcome the inevitable advance of new technologies and find their new place in it. Have NO fear they will find a way to make money in the end.

monkeyknuckle, these guys are NOT pirating the satellite or cable signal - subscribers have to pay the same subscription fees as if they were in the US. It's the same as buyng a satellite subscription viewing card in the US and using it in Canada, - it may breach copyright laws, but it's not theft. It's not hacking or pirating!

Somebody mentioned stolen signal, but that is not the case with all of these companies. When I lived in Tokyo I used a Slingbox hosting company. I had my own satellite TV account which I paid for each month, so no signal was stolen. I owned a Slingbox and leased a satellite receiver in my name. I paid the hosting company (in Los Angeles) to host and maintain the equipment for me, as well as supply me the broadband upload. When I returned to the states they returned my receiver to me and I kept my satellite account. I don't know if these companies are breaking any corporate user agreements, but considering the way technology is going, it hopefully won't be long before the content providers, distributors and technology manufacturers figure out a way to adjust to an American entertainment market that is growing more and more mobile.

"Our fans are never wrong," says MLB.comCEO Bob Bowman. "We can never suggest that a fan shouldn't do everything he or she is doing to watch a baseball game???

Now If only the whiners over in the RIIA and the music industry would get this. Its really starting to look like everyone but them is grasping that this is the new world. You can either get on, and still make a profit, or be rendered deservedly irrelevant.

This is indeed all about money and about content industries and cable/satellite companies trying to protect profits based on older ways of distributing programming and collecting money. Those industries would do well to try to learn from the music industry and MP3s and what a debacle that was. The music industry dug in its heels, resisted change, sued MP3 collectors, etc. It might well have been right on the legality as far as copyrights go, but what it didn't or wouldn't acknowledge was that MP3 distribution via Internet was simply a "better mousetrap" and that once people started downloading (legally or not) they wouldn't go back to buying physical CDs. Steve Jobs had to practically beat them over the head to give them a framework for recovering some revenue, and by then it was very late in the game.

History also shows it's hard to stop technologies that assist mobility and on-demand access (as MP3s did). If Obama makes improving Internet infrastructure a stimulus priority, then it could supplant cable/satellite TV (even though many people get their Internet through their cable company). Lest we forget, the U.S. is well BEHIND countries like Canada, Sweden, South Korea and Holland on broadband deployment. Faster connections would support video on demand, whether "legal" or not.

People seem to be completely ignorant of the fact that the rebrodcasters are STEALING content. What's to say some guy in New York uses his Slingbox to provide content to a few thousand people for a fee. He pays the cable or satellite company one subscription. All those people who pay him are not paying for the content that is subsidized by cable and satellite subscribers (those companies have to PAY for the content, it isn't free). So this one thief makes money like a bandit while the cable and satellite companies spread the cost of the lost business through higher rates to other subscribers. The Internet and related technology has created a legion of people who seem to think it's OK, nay even their RIGHT, to steal. Get real people.

People seem to be completely ignorant of the fact that the rebrodcasters are STEALING content. What's to say some guy in New York uses his Slingbox to provide content to a few thousand people for a fee. He pays the cable or satellite company one subscription. All those people who pay him are not paying for the content that is subsidized by cable and satellite subscribers (those companies have to PAY for the content, it isn't free). So this one thief makes money like a bandit while the cable and satellite companies spread the cost of the lost business through higher rates to other subscribers. The Internet and related technology has created a legion of people who seem to think it's OK, nay even their RIGHT, to steal. Get real people.

I can't agree more strongly with wesmenno (post 12/17 @ 5:40 pm). Who gave local government (or ANY level of government) the "right" to sell exclusive license to one company or another to market cable services in a given area? In fact, the big providers often "bought" this monopoly power from local officials who have no moral right to sell it... and to the detriment of ordinary citizens.

Encription codes with software access keys will become a global CONTENT distribution business in this decade, NDS in Jerusalem is already working on it as well as its competition.
YYBA

Things are only up in arms when big money-sucking corporation are not squeezing every penny they can from people, and we hear about things being up in arms when media outlets starts telling on the consumers, so if consumers are, like always finding ways around things and kicking the man, good for them, and shhh for you.

This is the result of unfair and abusive cable momopolies.
In our market we have a choice between time Warner and Verizon.
These corporations are the third and fourth most HATED by American consumers!
So do away with the monopolies (and the grafting local politicians who profit from them) and then maybe we can talk about controlling this answer to the abuse of, not by, the consumer.

Moving abroad I found a great solution which allows me to have my slingbox hosted in the USA so I can watch live american TV stations anywhere I travel abroad - I've been using http://www.parkmytv.com for about 2 months and it works like a charm. Would rec to anyone traveling or moving abroad...I own my box and getting over the air signal I would no issues w/cable...

Moving abroad I found a great solution which allows me to have my slingbox hosted in the USA so I can watch live american TV stations anywhere I travel abroad - I've been using http://www.parkmytv.com for about 2 months and it works like a charm. Would rec to anyone traveling or moving abroad...They don't bundle cable and don't share slingboxes, I own mine after 3 months.