Is it illegal to use a Slingbox to watch TV from Lebanon in the US?
My first thought was, of course not! After all, America is supposed to be the land of free speech and so on.
But when I thought about it some more, I remembered that the channel lineup back in Lebanon includes al-Manar TV, which is Hezbollah’s TV channel.
It’s nothing special; it’s mostly just advice shows and news brodcasts. But the neocon lobby went nuts in America back in 2004 and got it banned. If you are a satellite carrier or anything like that, it’s actually illegal for you to broadcast al-Manar into the US.
However, a Slingbox is not a commercial broadcast.
Would it be legal for me to use a Slingbox to watch TV from Lebanon even though al-Manar is included in the channel lineup?
I mean, you can watch al-Manar on their website, too, so, it shouldn’t be a big deal.