The principle? Some people feel strongly about their freedom, you know.

"Good behavior is the last refuge of mediocrity." - Henry S. Haskins

Sherman said: SlingMedia has every right to protect their Intellectual Property. If encryption allows them to license such products as recorders, DVRs, etc. then I say more power to them. IMHO, the SlingCorder is an example of one that got away from them. They should have encrypted earlier. I'm not saying no to inovation; just saying Sling should be entitled to some of the profits.

Sure they have a right to protect their IP -- only it's not their IP that they are encrypting for gods sake!!!!!

It's MY [read MY!!!] stream content they are encrypting -- stream content that I am already paying my cable company for [which, I wouldn't be surprised, they may have no legal right to encrypt in the first place -- but hey, I'm not a lawyer].  Or maybe it's MY baby videos they are encrypting -- and I surely never knowingly gave them the legal right to do that...  [anyone out there want to take on that action?]

The 'their IP' argument goes nowhere Sherman.  It's not their IP!

There are a lot of examples where you purchase a company's equipment to receive or transmit data and they do so digitally with proprietary software. Do you have a right to XM's or Sirius' unencrypted stream? How about DirecTV's or Dish Networks? Indeed, with cell phones it is illegal to decode the transmission -- even if you claim a right to your voice.

The IP in play here is not the data trasmitted by the SlingBox. It is the technology that they developed and deployed that allows one to transmit media content over an Internet Protocol network. That they choose to transmit the contents in a proprietary / encrypted format is their right.

I think most people on this board are interested in SlingMedia's long term success. We want our investment to continue to work; we want the improvements in software functionality.

SlingMedia innovated a terrific product, sold it at a reasonable price, have given free upgrades to their software, and have encouraged customer dialog. I have absolutely no problem with them exerting their right to profit from the technologies which might spring from their invention. I would be disappointed if they failed because of a poor management decision to not exert such rights.

I suppose that's the real answer. If you want to record your sling output to the computer, then don't upgrade. I am, in fact, not planning to ever upgrade. While not perfect, I am happy with what I get from the product. And I never mess with success. We all know how many stories there are of software upgrades that mess up a system or just plain don't work. So, I urge anyone who is upset by the encryption and is not unhappy with the current stream, don't upgrade. 

Well the "stop loss" on this issue is to just avoid new Slingbox purchases until they promise to cease their tampering.  Not a great deal of leverage, but it might make a dent if they experienced enough buyer pushback. Unfortunately, I don't see this happening. Buyers usually grumble - then fail to back it up with their purchasing behavior....

So moving on...does anyone really know how to freeze this system to the last non encrypted upgrade? I suspect that most of us really don't have the latest software installed anyway, and it would be useful to know what the safe versions really are and where/how to get them. 

I'm afraid this is probably the only constructive path to salvage *some* value from the Slingbox. Longer term, I think the only real option for most users is replacement.

Art said: Well the "stop loss" on this issue is to just avoid new Slingbox purchases until they promise to cease their tampering. Not a great deal of leverage, but it might make a dent if they experienced enough buyer pushback. Unfortunately, I don't see this happening. Buyers usually grumble - then fail to back it up with their purchasing behavior.... So moving on...does anyone really know how to freeze this system to the last non encrypted upgrade? I suspect that most of us really don't have the latest software installed anyway, and it would be useful to know what the safe versions really are and where/how to get them. I'm afraid this is probably the only constructive path to salvage *some* value from the Slingbox. Longer term, I think the only real option for most users is replacement.

And that's exactly what I'm doing. I was planning on buying a second box for my daughter who spends about half the year overseas. Because she cannot record the stream now due to encryption, and the time difference made it important to be able to do so, I will not buy the second box until there is recording capability. I don't mind of Sling wants to make money on a recording program, but before they encrypted, they should have had the program ready to go. And are we sure they are going to have a recording program at some point? Anyway, they have lost a sale here.  

Someone else does accomodate place shifting: Tivo.

I'm not saying it couldn't be done more efficiently. At Large had a decent solution.  Nobody denies the advantages of being able to take the recording with you when you have no Internet connection.

The bottom line is Sling never made that offer. The product was not advertised as "open" and it had no built in DVR solution. Not a huge suprise here that they would want to protect their business model.

At Large should have known the risks and been up front with its customers. If you should be angry with anyone, it should be them, not Sling. They took advantage of an opportunity that was risky, did not disclose that to you, and took your money. Would you have purchased the recorder had they told you it would only work for a couple of months?  Sling's exertion of their Trademark rights should have been a clue that they weren't playing well together.

It really is, after all, about protecting the stream and the content it holds.  It is not about recording.  Applian proved that SlingMedia's non-standard but not encrypted stream could be compromised.  How long would it have been before someone had announced SlingCaster?

Perhaps it would have been better if SlingCaster had come out first.  Oh, there would still have been an uproar from those who had purchased the software, but maybe those who weren't using it wouldn't have been so quick to come to the defense of the company that had cracked the stream in the first place.

If SlingMedia does have plans to either write recording software or enter into a licensing agreement with another vendor in the future for an add-on, more power to them.  And if you run a software company that would like to provide add-ons to someone else's software, make sure you have an agreement with them ahead of time so that you don't end up with an unsupportable product.

The older I get, the better I was.

RoOsTeR, if you look around the forums you will find all the info necessary to "downgrade" your firmware to the latest non-encrypted version.

"Good behavior is the last refuge of mediocrity." - Henry S. Haskins