Sling Takes Notes From Content Industry On Making Content Less Useful

(Mis)Uses of Technology

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

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.