Posts Tagged: tv

The Sling Encryption Mystery

There’s quite a thread going on at the Sling Community forum regarding Sling’s new encryption “feature” and its impact on At-Large Recorder. Jeremy T from Sling is doing his best to answer the critics, and has made his third post.
The money quote (emphasis mine):

Finally, I’ve tried to be clear that there are issues regarding this topic that I simply cannot discuss. Some of the other users in this thread have guessed at them, and I appreciate those posts. In my last comment I asked readers to sit back and really think about our motivation here. You think we are motivated to try to “screw third parties”? I already stated we plan to have some form of API/SDK coming out down the road. You really think that we want to “screw Slingbox owners”? Why on Earth would we want to do that??

I guess Jeremy didn’t really make it clear that there were other motivators to the decision. Web users, and especially early adopters like those who buy Slingbox devices, are very sophisticated, and the attempt to say encrypting the stream to “protect users privacy” didn’t really make sense to anybody. Likewise with the protecting “content owners” reason. He probably would have been better off saying “I simply cannot discuss” like he finally did in the third post. While nobody likes that excuse, they can respect it at least. I respect it.

The fact that Sling cannot discuss the rationale for the decision makes for an entertaining game of speculation. The Sling Community forum participants certainly have a lot of theories. Since I have no inside knowledge, I get to speculate, too!
Sling has received a huge amount of investment money – $55 million or so. One of the investors is EchoStar. The content people are always paranoid about these new technologies (TiVo has investments from the major networks), and investing in these companies is a good way to keep the technologies under control. One theory is that as a condition for the investment, Sling agreed to ensure the stream couldn’t be redirected. They probably didn’t think it could be done until At-Large Recorder appeared, hence the need to quickly add encryption, and the fact that this was “always on the product roadmap” as Jeremy suggests.

This also keeps them out of possible legal trouble with HBO, MLB any anyone else concerned with geographic rebroadcast issues.

Sling has taken great care to ensure the streams couldn’t be “split” and beamed to several people at once. Theoretically, if the stream can be recorded, it can be retransmitted to several people at once. This breaks the legal protections they have put in place.

I don’t think the “recording” aspect is the cause for the consternation. The way At-Large Recorder works, you can’t really retransmit in real time anyway, as the file isn’t viewable until recording ends.

Anyway, that’s MY theory. We’ll probably never know.

Sling is in a bit of a pickle, in that they can’t do anything and everything to make their product the best it can be. It would be great is they could be more open about the reasons behind the decision, but this may leave them open to legal trouble by recognizing any legal weaknesses publicly, so it’ll likely remain a secret. I believe that if Jeremy T could say more he would – he’s clearly (and rightfully) a little upset about being beaten up on the Sling forums.

Sling and Applian are a little similar, in that we both are pushing the envelope of what people can do with their media. Sometimes we can’t market our products the way we’d like either. Fortunately, people are still able to find us when they want the best tools for recording online video, music or radio, and they tell their friends.

If Sling wants to work with us to make a recording solution that doesn’t put them in legal jeopardy, that would be terrific. It would be great for Sling, and their users. Or maybe products like HAVA and others will add this capability, and they’ll just open it up, as it will cease to be an issue if everybody is doing it. I hope we’ll be able to come up with a solution soon.

Slung Out To Dry

Most hardware companies are delighted when a third party develops a complementary product for their platform. Apple, Microsoft, and many other companies have an active ISV (Independent Software Developer) recruitment effort, as they realize the benefits of others working on their behalf (for free) to make their products better.

When we developed our SlingBox device recording product, we kind of expected the same red carpet treatment. The SlingBox device is a terrific piece of hardware that attaches to your TV, and lets you watch it remotely from anywhere with a high speed internet connection. Sony has a competing product called LocationFree, and if I were competing with Sony, I’d want to do everything possible to make my product stand out.

Sling’s reaction was not what we expected. First of all, they had an issue with the product name, as it used the letters “sling” in it. Kind of a trademark deal. Our conversation went something like this:

Us: “Can we license the “Sling” part, and pay you a royalty on each copy sold.”
Sling: “No.”
Us: OK, how about changing the name to “SBox Recorder.”
Sling: “too close.”
Us: “Hmmm… how about “S Recorder. ”
“Still too close.”
“OK, we’ll call it “Blake’s recorder” or something. ” (Blake is the CEO).
Long pause. “Well, I guess that would be OK.”
Sling: “Your trade-dress is too much like our product – you need to change it, too.” (Our UI was red and grey, in the shape of a Slingbox device.)
Us: “OK – we’ll change the shape to a parallelogram.”
Sling: “No – the angles would be similar.”
Us: “You’re kidding…. OK – we’ll make it a rounded rectangle then.”
Sling: “You’ll have to change the colors, too. Don’t use either red or grey.”
Us: “You’re messing with me now.”
Sling: “No – we need to strongly defend our trademark and trade dress.” (At this point, it was Sling’s IP lawyer in this exchange. She was very polite, and was just doing her job. It’s still pretty ludicrous.)
Us: “bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb”

Anyway, we went ahead and complied with their requests, and came out with At-Large Recorder. Definitely no trademark issues there. I thought we were in the clear and good to go. Today we learn Sling is encrypting their stream transmission, thereby rendering our product inoperable in its present form.

I actually talked with Blake – Sling’s CEO – when we first launched and he was very cordial, although slightly annoyed. Said something about “getting a phone call” about our product. And brought up the trademark issues. That was about it.

So – what’s the deal?

Theory #1: Sling is pushing into uncharted legal territory – removing the geographical limitations on TV viewing isn’t taken very well by Major League Baseball, to name one. Anything they can do to reduce their legal risks may be a part of the strategy.

Theory #2: Sling is going to produce their own recording add-on.

Theory #3: Don’t know. Leave a comment and tell me your theory. Sling representatives are particularly welcome to respond.

Update:
Sling responds, and we dig deeper.

Update #2:
Digg this story.

Press Release for At-Large Recorder

This press release hit the wires today, announcing At-Large Recorder:

SlingBox™ Recording Software Gets New Name, New Features

July 11, 2006 – San Anselmo, CA – Applian Technologies announced significant changes to At-Large Recorder, the first and only PC-based software that captures TV broadcasts directly from the Sling Media SlingBox™ device.
To avoid possible trademark confusion, Applian has changed the product name from Replay SlingCorder to At-Large Recorder. Although Applian’s recording product is fully compatible with SlingPlayer™, the name change was made to ensure customers recognized two distinct products and companies.

The release of At-Large Recorder also adds new features. Most notably, Applian’s popular streaming video and audio recording product, Replay A/V, is now able to capture SlingBox™ TV streams by using At-Large Recorder. Customers can now schedule multiple recordings on different channels, including daily and weekly repeating events. Replay A/V also records online video and audio clips, XM™ and Sirius™ radio, and thousands of radio shows, radio stations, TV stations and Podcasts accessed from the included Replay Media Guide.

“The new At-Large Recorder name makes it very clear that we are the online video recording experts, and not Sling Media,” said Bill Dettering, CEO of Applian Technologies. “Our customers have been delighted with the video quality and ease of use of At-Large Recorder with their SlingBox™ device. And with the Replay A/V and At-Large Recorder combination, our customers get the expanded scheduled recording features they’ve been asking for. This puts Replay A/V even further ahead of all other streaming video and audio capture products. ”

At-Large Recorder is available immediately for purchase from at-large-recorder.com for $29.95. Replay A/V, with At-Large Recorder included, is located at replay-av.com, for $49.95. Free demos of both products are available. At-Large Recorder requires a Windows based PC running SlingPlayer™. Replay A/V also requires a Windows based PC.

At-Large Recorder is the latest offering from Applian Technologies, the global leader in recording software for streaming media delivered over the internet. Other popular Applian products include Replay Radio, Replay A/V, Replay Music, the Replay Video Suite, Replay Screencast and Replay Converter. Learn more about Applian Technologies at Applian.com.

Please direct all press inquiries to Leslie Bee via [email protected].

Slingbox and SlingPlayer are trademarks of Sling Media Inc.