Placeshifting And The Law

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Various media groups continue to choose sides in the brewing placeshifting battle. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has vocalized their support of the Slingbox as a means of remotely viewing content a consumer has paid for for, while Major League Baseball and HBO suggest placeshifting may break service agreements and violate copyright law. Now the BBC’s television licensing board and Sky are chiming in. Sky doesn’t support international place shifting while TV Licensing says placeshifting is only permissible via battery power when in a home without a television license.

What Video and High-Definition TV writes: According to TV Licensing it’s legal to use place shifting devices if your own home has a TV licence. If you’re using the device in another place that also has a TV licence (say your friend’s home) that’s not a problem, but what if the place doesn’t have one? TV Licensing says you can still use your placeshifting device, but only in battery mode.

(Thanks for the scan, Ken Westmoreland!)