I posted this on the Sling Community forum, and liked it so much, I decided to share it with you. It’s in response to why it’s such a big deal about Sling encrypting their stream. I feel it expresses what Applian stands for as a company really well.

Why should anyone care? It’s important to fight for your right to make recordings for your personal use. If you have a TiVo, imagine a world without it. Or what if ripping MP3s from a CD became illegal? Every so often, a piece of horrible legislation is proposed to curb your personal recording rights, and so far, none have passed. Even if you don’t own At-Large Recorder, you have a vested interest in retaining the status quo vis a vis your rights to record.

So far nobody’s been able to come up with a good law-based explanation why being able to record your Sling stream is illegal, or puts Sling in any legal risk. Granted there is the desire for Sling not to do more to rock the boat with the Content Owners, but recording and place-shifting are really two distinct, separate issues.
You’re already paying for your Cable or Satellite TV. You can record it via TiVo or your PC and copy it to your iPod. You should be able to do the same with your Sling stream.