Saturday, July 22, 2006
Slingbox Encrypts Streams
I have been thinking about purchasing a Slingbox to experiment with place shifting. The concept is a bit like time shifting with a VCR or DVR and works rather well with timeshifting devices. Rather than shifting the time you watch something, you can use the Internet to shift WHERE you watch content.
Say I record a show on my ReplayTV and I want to watch something that I've recorded, but I'm in a hotel in Ottawa. I can use the Slingbox to steam that content to my laptop over the hotel's broadband Internet connection.
This is a very cool concept--there is a software varient of the same concept called Orb.
Slingbox appears to have caved to the big networks and started encrypting the stream. Prior to adding the encryption, third parties had build software that allows for recording of that stream--a feature not advertised by the company. PC magazine has reported that this action has broken third party applications like this.
As I see it, Sling added a form of DRM to the stream to avoid the kind of debacle ReplayTV found itself in when owned by SonicBlue. SonicBlue was sued into oblivion for features the RIAA were concerned about--specifically show sharing and commercial advance. Sling is taking steps to avoid these kinds of clashes in the future.
I understand why Sling has done what it did, but DRM is strangling people's rights to fair use. because of the worry of potential abuse. But this is *potential* abuse, not actual abuse.
The direction that DRM is headed is pretty troubling with issues ranging from disallowing timeshifting through use of network flags to the relatively recent DMCA which does, amonst other things, criminalizes the backup of DVDs purchased for home use.
Say I record a show on my ReplayTV and I want to watch something that I've recorded, but I'm in a hotel in Ottawa. I can use the Slingbox to steam that content to my laptop over the hotel's broadband Internet connection.
This is a very cool concept--there is a software varient of the same concept called Orb.
Slingbox appears to have caved to the big networks and started encrypting the stream. Prior to adding the encryption, third parties had build software that allows for recording of that stream--a feature not advertised by the company. PC magazine has reported that this action has broken third party applications like this.
As I see it, Sling added a form of DRM to the stream to avoid the kind of debacle ReplayTV found itself in when owned by SonicBlue. SonicBlue was sued into oblivion for features the RIAA were concerned about--specifically show sharing and commercial advance. Sling is taking steps to avoid these kinds of clashes in the future.
I understand why Sling has done what it did, but DRM is strangling people's rights to fair use. because of the worry of potential abuse. But this is *potential* abuse, not actual abuse.
The direction that DRM is headed is pretty troubling with issues ranging from disallowing timeshifting through use of network flags to the relatively recent DMCA which does, amonst other things, criminalizes the backup of DVDs purchased for home use.
