As a wise man once said: "Damn, that's just cold, son." Merely hours after boxee
announced its latest alpha build along with RSS feed support for Hulu, said video portal has now blocked off
boxee's browser entirely from accessing its content. If you'll recall, boxee saw a huge increase in interest when it
first added easy access to Hulu, and once Hulu demanded that it be removed, boxee sadly
complied. The latest move just seems "cold blooded," as now boxee users who attempt to surf over via a
Hulu RSS feed link will be greeted with an infinite amount of nothing. boxee is quick to point out that its browser doesn't access Hulu content "any differently" than IE, Firefox, Opera or any other browser, which does a good job of explaining just how deliberate this move is. Needless to say, we get the feeling this bout is just getting started.
[Image courtesy of
ZatzNotFunny]
Update: boxee now says
things are working. For the moment, anyway. Feel free to join us as we throw our hands in the air and give up on understanding this mess.
posted Mar 6th 2009 6:55PM
I actually doubt that this will last (long). I'm sure updates will continue for Boxee from third-party players, but with the legal power behind Hulu, if the "content providers" deem that Boxee is an unsuitable device to view Hulu content, there isn't much Boxee could do.
Which fucking sucks.
You have no idea what you are talking about.
Yeah, you are pretty much a douche nozzle!
Soon people will just have to spoof the user agent and be good to go.
I still want a firefox extension for *nix OSes that just lies in the face of every site reported to be trying to pull manipulative crap with users.
..and I want it to ship with default firefox installations.
useragents are NOT for discrimination; **** anyone who uses 'em for that.
I do believe you've got half of that available already... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59
And, Opera has a feature like that built in - with options to identify as Opera (default,) identify as Firefox or IE (but with Opera in the useragent,) or mask as Firefox or IE (just saying that it's one of those browsers, no mention of Opera at all.)
Maybe I don't follow here but why is Hulu doing this? Does Boxee cut out the ads in some magical way? Hulu group should simply force their browser to be recognized as Internet Explorer or Firefox, should be even more fun.
It seems Hulu is perfectly okay with people watching on their computer. However, they would rather you not be able to view Hulu on a television. For that they would really rather you watch it on the respective networks.
Basically, they still don't get it.
Hulu are doing this because they've been told by their content providers to do it. It's not that they "don't get it", Hulu made it clear in their blog entry last month that they weren't happy about the situation. It's that Fox, NBC, etc, still live in some parallel universe where the VCR hasn't been invented yet.
Hulu is owned by Fox and NBC.
@cashmonee: I bet you hit it on the head. Perhaps they're at issue with the potential drop in click-throughs from that scenario.
I agree,
How would they stop people from getting a VGA to component video adapter and having Hulu on their TVs that way?
Which just gave me a great idea, I should totally do that!
Bootes:
Yes, but Fox and NBC aren't the only content providers for Hulu. How do you know that it's Fox and NBC making these demands of Hulu and not, for example, Comedy Central and a bunch of other networks?
@cashmonee:
So, watching Hulu on my Mini using my LCD TV as a monitor is fine, but the second I refer to my Mini an HTPC then I've crossed the line and shouldn't be allowed to watch Hulu? O_o
"No officer, they're not brass knuckles. As you can clearly see on the invoice, they're 'brass paperweights'."
Maybe they should stop announcing shit, that way hulu wont be able to block em???
My Name Is Caboose
Your name above your comment already said your stupid name, stupid.
Also, shut up.
My name is Michael J. Caboose, and I hate babies!
The fault is Hulu's here. If they offer their videos via RSS or link to them via RSS, then they better not block Boxee (as long Boxee simply loads a browser window to show the videos after someone linking in the RSS link). That was a clear knee jerk reaction from Hulu.
s/linking/clicking
Hulu is just being stupid all-around (via the old-media dinosaur fossils in charge of dictating how Hulu does things). Is ANYONE really surprised that the media industry takes one step forward, and then two steps back?
No doubt it was the affiliates/NAB that bitched on this one. NBC is actually one of the more progressive networks and has been ever since the early days of home satellite television back in the 80's. They've always believed in the "the more eyeballs, the better" concept. However, they, just like the other broadcast networks always cave to the affiliates when they bitch about "devaluing content" by offering it through channels that go around their territorial exclusivity. (This is why it took so long for US TV shows to come out on DVD in the USA. Other areas had TV-on-DVD & VHS years before we did because of syndication and local broadcasters.) This is also why you can't buy just any city's networks from Dish Network or DirecTV. The NAB forced laws and/or FCC rules to make this illegal, again because it "devalued the affiliate's local franchise (read: "monopoly").
The only way this sort of thing will change is when shows stand on their own and cease to be branded by the channel they are broadcast on (those ever-more-prominent logos are the channels' passive-aggressive fight against this). Consumers want this because they get exactly what they want. Content producers want this because they cut out the middleman. Once again, the obsolete middlemen:cable companies, network affiliates and cable channel conglomerates are the ones who are going to obstruct, bemoan, spawn FUD, and otherwise kick and scream all the way out to behind the woodshed.
This isn't even to say that there isn't a place in the future for cable companies and local broadcasters. They just have to be willing to alter their business model. NBC and Fox were willing to dip their toes into altering their business models, but are obviously being forced to show restraint. The fact is that the entire entertainment industry is going to have to alter its business models right up the line from broadcasters to the production companies to the industry unions who have multi-year contracts negotiated based on the financial models of the old system. (Entertainment unions have become every bit as corporate and intransigent as the companies they are ostensibly supposed to protect their members from.)
I'm going to shut up now. I'm getting all "manifesto" up in here. 8^)
One Big Ass Mistake, America
OBAMA
One Big Ass Mistake, America
Yeah...that second post was...
Ha! PWNED!
is this accurate? it seems to still work for me.
Seems like simply spoofing the user agent should fix the problem.
Absolutely; they should change the default useragent in boxee to the latest firefox.
What the fuck do these TV studios think they're playing at? Hulu was a great step forward for them - trying to block legitimate avenues of consuming content will just cause consumers to return to pirating from torrents = lose-lose for the TV studios
If I was a major shareholder of these companies, I'd call for a complete change of the board, these backward fogies just "don't get it" when it comes to giving the customer what they want.
It's not that they "don't get it when it comes to giving the customer what they want". They *don't want* to give the customer what they want. What the customer wants is too much choice and flexibility which equals less profit for the content owners.
It's almost as though these people *want* us to use BitTorrent.
Can they legally do that?? I mean it's basically equivalent to them blocking Firefox, for example, from accessing the RSS feeds. I mean the whole idea (okay, part of the idea) of RSS feeds is to provide information in flexible form that will allow users to "process" it in a different form, suitable to their needs. If Hulu can block RSS feeds from boxee, what's to prevent Apple, for example, from blocking their RSS feeds from every browser other than Safari?
People will change their useragents.
I'm not sure how you can think it's not legal to do this. Many sites block everything but IE, because their pages will not load in anything but IE due to terrible coding. Many government sites, for example, my local library, do this as well.
Just download and install TunerFree MCE for Vista media center, gives you full hulu access.
Cool! Can you help me get it installed on my Apple TV?
You bought an Apple TV ? LOL
I am done with this crap. I am going to wage war against Hulu. The great thing about Open Source is anyone can modify what is already written for their own purposes. Boxee is Open Source, I am going to create a plugin that will allow bring watching shows from Hulu functionality back to Boxee.
I am not part of the Boxee team, but just a royally pissed off programmer. I believe content to the internet should not be hindered based on what type of hardware anyone currently owns. Stay tuned to SourceForge.
..submit a patch that changes the default useragent to the latest firefox.
why Firefox? change it to IE we don't want them blocking Firefox too
While you're at it, please also program a workaround which allows Hulu content to be accessed from Canada/non-US countries. Currently access is blocked from outside of the US.
HULU you are dead to me! Dead you hear? DEAD
Now get out of my sight. I'm going to watch Star Trek re-runs on TV.COM
back to the pirate ship
Butt pirate ship?
I find it interesting that PlayOn still has working support for streaming Hulu on an Xbox360 and it DOESNT use a browser to display media like boxee. Instead it removes the interface completely and makes it look like windows media extender. If anything, they should be pissed about that... but the fact is they are still generating ad revenue whether you use boxee or playon. Neither removes advertising.
This studios is why you force your consumers to pirate - give them accessible content at fair trade offs and they will be willing to consume. Take these avenues away and their only alternative is piracy, and they have the gaul to actually make a big deal out of piracy...
Yeah they still don't seem to fucking realize that my monitor is my T.V. now.
oh & vise versa in a lot of cases now.
i mirror my HDMI out to my monitor and TV :D
Well that sucks that Hulu did that.
On the other hand, what did Boxee expect to happen?
Compared to watching on your computer, I bet relatively few people watch Hulu via Boxee. So, if Hulu has to block Boxee in order to make the networks happy, then so be it. I'd rather be able to watch The Office and The Daily Show on my computer than for the networks to get angry and pull their content from Hulu altogether. Then, no one wins.
You sir "Get it" whatever that means!
From the boxee blog the week Hulu first pulled out "last week we generated more than 100,000 streams for them…" I don't know how many views Hulu actually gets, but over 5 million a year seems like more than relatively few. After the open beta is released it will only grow.
Hulu boycott group still going strong over here
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=51578669580
Boycott facebook while your at it!
I think you need to start boycotting all of these companies instead:
http://www.hulu.com/browse/network/clips
After all, it's those companies that's forcing Hulu to block Boxee.
@ Tubes
Those companies are not forcing Hulu to do what they want THEY OWN HULU.
LEAVE BOXEE ALONE!
This is seriously getting ridiculous.
Thats what your mom said...
And once again simply downloading the TV shows through file sharing networks proves considerably easier, and probably quicker, than the "legal" route of using Hulu. Way to go, idiots, you just lost to tvrss.
[f]u.c.k. hulu. In the ass.
If Hulu doesn't want users accessing their site this way, pull the RSS feed altogether you dumb asses. Thats the whole point of RSS. Don't play favorites. Boxee is simply a another web browser, just more geared towards media.
I guarantee you this, Hulu. When it comes to hackers & pirates, you won't win. So you might as well play nice cause people are gonna get at your shit nomatter what you try to pull. And stuff like this just entices them even more to F you in the A. So bring plenty of lube.
Hm, works for me. Watching Dollhouse as we speak.
Sucks for Engadget. Maybe Hulu just doesn't like them.
Screw Hulu. I'm done dealing with this nonsense. What exactly is the problem here? We still watch the commercials. Isn't that how the bills get paid? And by the way, people need to cut the "the content owners are forcing Hulu to do this" bull crap. Hulu IS the content provider. Look into who owns Hulu. It's the studios themselves.
TV has more ads. and the networks make more money from each ad on TV.
Someone please tell me now.
How is this not making it any more attractive to just STEAL TV???
The longer they fight technology, the worse it's gonna be come 3-4 years when cable subscription is a thing of the past. I honestly can't believe it's 2009 and I'm seeing something like this happen. We had the mp3 blueprint laid out for us! But yet these greedy old farts can't get with it.
I don't want to advocate stealing, but COME ON.
how about they identify themselves as another browser?
like opera can do.
Caboose, we already know your name. Stop doing that before sarge and the red team see you!
you know, i really do hate the reply system here... doesn't even let you reply to what you want to reply to sometimes!
Now all that's needed is support so that Canadians and other non-Americans can view all the awesomeness that is Hulu.
Not cool
Boy they sure do want me to go back to downloading torrents don't they?
Message received HULU/NBC/FOX! I'll get on that right away!
I'm fairly sure that someone from the opensource community will come out with a patch for this soon enough. It's not a complex thing that they've done here.
What I'm pretty sure of is that the by giving people more "on demand" content the networks loose a lot of control over consumers. It's harder to cross market shows, harder to target advertising, etc. Additionally, we are ignoring what the writer's strike was all about; revenue generated from online viewing of shows.
I'm sure that somewhere in the networks people are going "oh crap, we have to redo contracts again and how do we market for this?"
It's sad but I think this is what's happening here
Hulu needs to build a system similar to StumbleUpon. Get users to register, select subjects you are interested in and then insert commercials that may actually be useful to you. They could still have fewer commercials and make more money because they could charge a higher price for each ad, especially since it is targeted. Just think...you could show a male teenager a commercial about a movie or band he might like instead of blowing money showing him an ad for tampons. Take it one step further and insert geographically relevant ads.
The networks need to get off their ass and realize they could make even more money without bowing to their affiliates. It just requires them to rethink their model. Of course they'll probably play it safe and continue to piss off their customers who will find workarounds to all this stupidity.
As long as i can still play it on my PS3...
Meh, if Big Content is going to continue to make it difficult for me to pay to watch content my way I'll simply continue downloading it for free.
I am surprised we don't see greater use of targeted advertising in all sorts of places.
Only downside to targeted ads is all the ads that will never get shown because no-one will ever pick the right categories (for example would anyone ever pick the categories that match with, say, ads for life insurance or funeral insurance)
So Apple can tell people what they are allowed to install a paid for copy of leopard on but Hulu can't decide what their service is used on ?
Isn't it simple to beat ? Everytime Boxee visit www.hulu.com , change your userAgent randomly to Firefox/opera/IE/Safari etc.
omg they are blocking bawksy? the QUEEN!??!?!