Voice Service Continues To Trend Towards Free

Sling Takes Notes From Content Industry On Making Content Less Useful

from the a-taste-of-their-own-medicine dept

Thu, Jul 20th 2006 10:27am — Joseph Weisenthal

Since the inception of the Sling Media's Slingbox, the company has been at odds with content owners who aren't comfortable with flexibility that place shifting offers consumers. Now Sling Media has found itself in the position of battling with another company selling a product that extends the functionality of the Slingbox. A company called Applian Technologies released its own device that allowed Slingbox users to make recordings of television content. In response, Sling Media has started encrypting its data, which not only blocks out Applian's device, but also disables some functionality to its users, such as the ability to use a Slingbox along with file-sharing apps. Sling claims that decision had nothing to do with Applian, though a Sling spokesman asked, "Does Applian have rights to content?", which sounds like the kind of nonsense argument content owners have used against Sling. Sling has every right to block out Applian if they want to, but shutting out a product that makes the SlingBox better and using the same specious logic as rights holders do, doesn't do much for Sling's image.

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11 Comments

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Rational Beaver, 20 Jul 2006 @ 10:43am

If you can record TV, and you can place-shift TV, why shouldn't you be able to record place-shifted TV?
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Greg, 20 Jul 2006 @ 11:03am

This sounds like a CYA move on their part - if they keep the content from being recorded or shared, they can avoid liability and maybe get the content providers to back off.
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RobG, 20 Jul 2006 @ 11:19am

Who needs Sling? Orb streams like Sling plus it lets you record TV and it's free!
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nVidiaFan, 20 Jul 2006 @ 11:40am

Just get a graphics card with a built in tv-tuner for your desktop... :P
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- Eric, 20 Jul 2006 @ 1:16pm
  
  Re: Built-In TV-Tuner
  The problem with this advice is that with the SlingBox I can access the premium channels my parents at my house pay for from Cablevision all the way from my dorm room in Boston, which is a Comcast zone.
  
  Learn your hardware uses before spewing "advice".
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  - RobG, 20 Jul 2006 @ 1:52pm
    
    Re: Re: Built-In TV-Tuner
    And with Orb, I can watch HBO away from home too. Why is that spewing bad advice?
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    - Mikester, 20 Jul 2006 @ 2:01pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: Built-In TV-Tuner
      He was replying to the person suggesting to just get a TV-Tuner, duh.
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      - Larry, 20 Jul 2006 @ 5:50pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Built-In TV-Tuner
        Im horny.
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        Anonymous Coward, 20 Jul 2006 @ 7:27pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Built-In TV-Tuner
        wow this got off track fast...
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jul 2006 @ 12:08pm

Considering you can MultiCast Sling, maybe this is just a way to keep another industry from filing a lawsuit against them.
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Mikester, 20 Jul 2006 @ 1:09pm

Sooo...?
Pot. Kettle. Black.
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