...to all the rights issues. Limit the functionality to working on the same local network. If the range of use is reduced, rights holders won't have any grounds to complain.

And then you really could watch Lost while straddling the bog...

So we'll see TV all over the place? 
Will the content owners stand by and allow "out of geography" distribution as more devices can access the Slingbox?

The same rights owners have been litigious in the past.

What has this got to do with Sky? A SlingBox can happily send and control pretty much any STB, Tivo, or whatever. This article makes it sound like it will only work with Sky boxes, which is rather misleading. It might also be worth pointing out that UK Slingboxes have Freeview built in, so you don't actually need an STB at all...