Industry Tries to Stop Boxee

I spotted this post about Boxee on Silicon Valley Insider. I downloaded Boxee just before CES. Great app. I was looking for a cheap alternative to Apple TV. After CES, it moved above on the radar for some folks in 'the industry' and they are apparently pretty unhappy about it.

By John Murrell at Silicon Valley Insider writes, "this disruption is driving the entertainment overlords into defensive positions based on arbitrary distinctions, just look at the current contretemps between Hulu and Boxee...

Boxee is media center software that makes it easy to watch online content on your television via a connected computer or device like AppleTV. Essentially, as explained by board member and investor Fred Wilson, it’s a Web browser optimized for TVs the way a mobile browser is optimized for phones....

...I’d guess Hulu had a deal to show ‘content’ on computers, and the ‘content providers’ balked when those computers started talking to their precious televisions.”

I am not sure studios can maintain this position indefinitely. They may look to DRM to prevent free access to content off their annointed platforms, but DRM isn't going to stop it for ever.