• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.158-167
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• 2013

This research examines the legal liability of place-shifting of TV contents by the use of the Slingbox. The place-shifting of TV contents is fair use because it is a non-commercial private use based on the relevant case law regarding time-shifting and device-shifting such as Sony, RIAA and Napster. But the sharing of place-shifting function is likely to be liable for copyright infringement. And place-shifting may not be fair use based on the cases which denied fair use of time-shifting and space-shifting because the consumers' convenience for the use of the copyrighted work is against the purpose of legislation of copyright law. Place-shifting is unlikely to have a significant effect on the potential market for TV contents because it presents lucrative new platforms to disseminate TV contents to computers and mobile devices. However it is likely to have negative effect because various devices can be the follow-up marketplaces of the copyright holders of TV contents. This study proposes the "innovative medium defense," a new doctrine to analyze liability of innovative media.