A system and method are provided for place-shifting media items. In general, a media zone broker operates to enable place-shifting of media items shared with the media zone by associated users among user devices of the associated users in such a manner that each media item is played by at most a number (N) of the user devices at any one time. The number (N) is a function of collective rights to the media item of one or more of the users sharing the media item in the media zone. In one embodiment, the number (N) is the number of users sharing the media item in the media zone or a function of the number of users sharing the media item in the media zone.