Hulu blocks boxee browser entirely, gloves get ripped halfway off

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.

[Endejas @ Mar 6th 2009 7:00PM]

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.

[jim @ Mar 6th 2009 7:07PM]

You have no idea what you are talking about.

[Marc @ Mar 6th 2009 8:04PM]

Yeah, you are pretty much a douche nozzle!

[KEROLiUKAS @ Mar 6th 2009 7:03PM]

Soon people will just have to spoof the user agent and be good to go.

[ethana2 @ Mar 6th 2009 7:24PM]

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.

[bhtooefr @ Mar 6th 2009 7:34PM]

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.)

[Skrying @ Mar 6th 2009 7:07PM]

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.

[cashmonee @ Mar 6th 2009 7:15PM]

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.

[squiggleslash @ Mar 6th 2009 7:21PM]

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.

[Bootes @ Mar 6th 2009 8:33PM]

Hulu is owned by Fox and NBC.

[ananimus3 @ Mar 6th 2009 8:37PM]

@cashmonee: I bet you hit it on the head. Perhaps they're at issue with the potential drop in click-throughs from that scenario.

[omnomnom @ Mar 6th 2009 10:53PM]

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!

[Tubes @ Mar 7th 2009 3:27AM]

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?

[Deacon Blues @ Mar 7th 2009 2:11PM]

@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'."

[Caboose @ Mar 6th 2009 7:06PM]

Maybe they should stop announcing shit, that way hulu wont be able to block em???

My Name Is Caboose

[Marc @ Mar 6th 2009 8:05PM]

Your name above your comment already said your stupid name, stupid.

Also, shut up.

[Abuzar Baloach @ Mar 6th 2009 10:21PM]

My name is Michael J. Caboose, and I hate babies!

[Eugenia Loli-Queru @ Mar 6th 2009 7:06PM]

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.

[Eugenia Loli-Queru @ Mar 6th 2009 7:10PM]

s/linking/clicking

[hexydes @ Mar 6th 2009 11:50PM]

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?

[stalkythefish @ Mar 7th 2009 12:43AM]

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^)

[Bill Hiers @ Mar 6th 2009 7:08PM]

One Big Ass Mistake, America

OBAMA

[Bill Hiers @ Mar 6th 2009 7:08PM]

One Big Ass Mistake, America

[Adam @ Mar 6th 2009 7:14PM]

Yeah...that second post was...

[Marc @ Mar 6th 2009 8:06PM]

Ha! PWNED!

[Rick @ Mar 7th 2009 2:38AM]

is this accurate? it seems to still work for me.

[joshua_w @ Mar 6th 2009 7:16PM]

Seems like simply spoofing the user agent should fix the problem.

[ethana2 @ Mar 6th 2009 7:25PM]

Absolutely; they should change the default useragent in boxee to the latest firefox.

[r3loaded @ Mar 6th 2009 7:18PM]

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.

[phoomp @ Mar 6th 2009 9:15PM]

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.

[Richy @ Mar 7th 2009 5:05AM]

It's almost as though these people *want* us to use BitTorrent.

[wrabbit @ Mar 6th 2009 7:18PM]

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?

[ethana2 @ Mar 6th 2009 7:27PM]

People will change their useragents.

[freehunter @ Mar 14th 2009 11:54AM]

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.

[Major4Play @ Mar 6th 2009 7:19PM]

Just download and install TunerFree MCE for Vista media center, gives you full hulu access.

[Tired_ @ Mar 6th 2009 7:32PM]

Cool! Can you help me get it installed on my Apple TV?

[Major4Play @ Mar 9th 2009 7:44AM]

You bought an Apple TV ? LOL

[James @ Mar 6th 2009 7:25PM]

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.

[ethana2 @ Mar 6th 2009 7:28PM]

..submit a patch that changes the default useragent to the latest firefox.

[brian @ Mar 6th 2009 8:46PM]

why Firefox? change it to IE we don't want them blocking Firefox too

[geysenba @ Mar 10th 2009 2:40PM]

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.

[Slippp @ Mar 6th 2009 7:44PM]

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

[ingle_d23 @ Mar 6th 2009 7:27PM]

back to the pirate ship

[Marc @ Mar 6th 2009 8:07PM]

Butt pirate ship?

[akcpe @ Mar 6th 2009 7:33PM]

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.

[Gnormie @ Mar 6th 2009 7:34PM]

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...

[zenstylejunglist @ Mar 6th 2009 7:41PM]

Yeah they still don't seem to fucking realize that my monitor is my T.V. now.

[zenstylejunglist @ Mar 6th 2009 7:43PM]

oh & vise versa in a lot of cases now.

[John @ Mar 6th 2009 9:36PM]

i mirror my HDMI out to my monitor and TV :D

[Tubes @ Mar 6th 2009 7:45PM]

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.