Obviously, the power of the Internet allows us to share videos without much effort with friends and unknowns alike. There is a hurdle to jump through though; someone out there has to actually capture the video, upload it to the web, and make it available to whomever they want. Most of us don't want to spend the time setting all this up just to avoid having our ISP send us harassing letters about copyright infringement.
Instead, a cable company could allow their cable boxes (which are basically just single purpose computers) to share data with other boxes. Each box could have an identifying "name," exactly like Wiis do right now. You could add contacts (other cable boxes) and if you watch a particularly funny episode of Saturday Night Live, or catch the local TV anchor drop a Freudian slip, you could send the video to someone else.
The receiving cable box would look at the metadata from the video and determine if it had the rights to play the file. If both users subscribe to HBO, then I could send you the episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm that you forgot to record last night. Granted, most subscription services make their shows available on demand, but most normal channels don't.
Working out the specfics of the Digital Rights Management (DRM) would be tricky. But isn't DRM tricky to begin with? And someone is bound to strip the DRM from the files within a week of this service coming out. But most people won't bother, because the shared videos would most likely relate to inside jokes, personal relationships, or obscure late night channel surfing. Broadcasters would benefit by having more people watch their programs and advertisers would benefit from closer scrutiny of the ads for moments to share.
TV 2.0? Again?
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