Streaming video provider Boxee on Thursday shot down the suggestion that Hulu pulled its content from Boxee because it was there illegally.

“Boxee uses a web browser to access Hulu’s content - just like Firefox or Internet Explorer. Boxee users click on a link to Hulu’s Web site and the video within that page plays,” Boxee CEO Avner Ronen wrote in a blog post. “We don’t ‘take’ the video. We don’t copy it. We don’t put ads on top of it. The video and the ads play like they do on other browsers or on Hulu Desktop. And it certainly is legal to do so.”

Ronen’s comments came after Jeff Zucker, president and CEO of NBC, told a House subcommittee this morning that Boxee illegally accessed Hulu content. He was on the Hill to discuss his company’s pending merger with Comcast, and was asked by Rep. Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat, why Hulu decided to ban Boxee last year.

“This was a decision made by the Hulu management,” Zucker responded. “What Boxee was doing was illegally taking the content that was on Hulu without any business deal.”