August 18, 2008

Pandora may be going dark

This article in Ars Technica does a nice job illustrating the demise of Pandora may be just days away. The problem is with the royalty fees they are being asked to pay, in contrast to what broadcast radio pays (nothing) and satellite radio pays (about half). The music business needs a big restructuring, as it's a sad day when cool services like Pandora go belly up, especially when they have revenues of $25 million(!).

Read the entire article to learn more.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 08:20 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: pandora drm soundexchange | Comments (0)

August 17, 2008

We've been Slashdotted!

An article about Applian, Replay Media Catcher and RTMPE protocol recently was posted on Slashdot. While much of it is a spirited debate about DRM, there is an inaccuracy that we need to clear up. Some of the posters seem to think that we are breaking Adobe's encryption in this latest version, which is false. The content we download is actually unencrypted.

It looks like this was a stopgap solution by Adobe. It appears Adobe made a technical tradeoff between continuing to support their existing ad insertion technology, and fully encrypting their content. There are a lot of really talented engineers at Adobe - I just don't think they have yet built a DMCA compatible system due to time constraints. Their Flash Video server technology is really well done, and after a major re-architecting, they will probably discover a better balance between ad serving and encryption.

As far as the DRM issue goes: never, ever redistribute anything you've recorded without the express written consent of the content owner. Recordings are always for your personal use only. Applian's intent is not to encourage customers to violate copyright laws.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 01:32 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: rtmpe drm adobe flash downloading video flv | Comments (0)

August 11, 2008

iPhone and Remote iTunes

Apple Insider has an article about a new Apple (AAPL) patent filing regarding iPhones accessing iTunes libraries from anywhere. The gist is that your desktop PC can have all your media (songs, videos, Podcasts, and more) on it, and your phone would be able to download and play anything from your desktop PC.

This would be a huge bonus for Replay A/V users. Imagine having your favorite radio shows recorded on a PC at home, imported to iTunes automatically, and available for listening wherever you are. This can be done now with the YouSendIt plug-in we provide (as you can email yourself recorded files automatically), but this mechanism would be much slicker.

Go Apple!

Posted by Bill Dettering at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: apple aapl itunes iphone radio dvr | Comments (1)

August 07, 2008

Recording the Olympics, Part II

Alex has looked into more of the technical details behind how NBC is streaming the Olympics, and has made an interesting discovery. Apparently the stream formats are different for live streams vs. pre-recorded streams. This means that you can make digital recordings of live events, and record from the screen for "rewind" or cached events. Below is his technical summary.

The Silverlight NBC Olympics server uses Windows Media Player for live streams and VP7 for prerecorded videos. VP7 is the format used by web sites like abc.com or fox.com and can provide very high quality (lossless) video compression including HD. The problem with this format is that it cannot be reliably streamed for longer periods of time like the live broadcasts. The math used to compress the video and the audio does not allow recovery when packets are lost which results in out of sync audio. Currently Windows Media Player is the only format that can do this. The live stream Olympics can be recorded with WM Recorder or Replay Media Catcher but the prerecorded clips can only be recorded with WM Capture.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: nbc olympics drm silverlight streaming video recording capture | Comments (0)

August 06, 2008

Recording The Olympics Online

This year NBC has teamed up with Microsoft (MSFT) to provide a wealth of Olympics footage at NBCOlympics.com. If you're really into specific events that aren't shown over your broadcast TV station, then you can likely watch them online. Very cool.

The Microsoft contribution is via the Silverlight video player, which you must install in order to watch video. Few video providers use Silverlight, which is why there are no programs (yet) that can record those feeds via stream capture.

If you're looking to record some of these events and save them forever, the best program to use is WM Capture. This on-screen recorder makes great quality videos from the Olympic feeds.

To burn these recordings to DVD, try the new Replay Converter 3.0, which is currently in beta. You can also make iPod format videos, or AVI files to import them into your favorite video editor.

Oh yeah - Go Team USA!

UPDATE: I noticed that you need to enter a zip code and your Cable provider to watch some online feeds. Try 94118 and ComCast Digital if you're disallowed access.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: olympics drm video nbc silverlight microsoft | Comments (0)

July 26, 2008

People who bought Yahoo Music with DRM are (almost) screwed

Yahoo Music is shuttering their DRM servers, which means that anyone who purchased music from them will eventually no longer be able to play their songs.

This is a great reason to use Replay Music to create unprotected MP3 files from the songs you purchased.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 11:32 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: yahoo music drm | Comments (0)

January 10, 2008

Clip & Sling II

A quick correction on my previous post regarding Clip & Sling. I went back to the main Sling booth again and learned the following:

1. You can record up to 2 minutes from any source without a content redistribution contract. However, your clips are only accessible to you.
2. All recorded clips are automatically uploaded to the Sling server. There is no local file storage for your own clips.

The concept of "fair use" is still foreign to these guys. By playing the content owners game, they are digging themselves into a hole for the future.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 06:49 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: sling sling media slingbox sling box | Comments (1)

January 08, 2008

Clip & Sling - The Ugly Truth

In keeping with my unhealthy obsession with Slingbox, I talked to a representative today here at CES regarding their "recording" feature in the upcoming SlingPlayer 2.0 called Clip & Sling. As we suspected, it's not pretty.

Turns out Sling has had to reach content redistribution deals with EVERY TV content owner on the planet for this feature. Each content owner must explicitly give Sling permission to record, and then sets the time limit - some may allow 15 seconds, some four minutes, etc. No agreement: no recording.

This is an INSANE amount of work for a feature with dubious value to customers. From our perspective it's great news, as SlingPlayer 2.0 will NOT have any significant recording options.

At-Large Recorder (and every other Applian product) is all about recording for personal use. You've paid for the content already, you can record it. Just don't redistribute it to others.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 04:11 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: sling sling media sling box slingbox | Comments (0)

November 26, 2007

Techware Slingbox Hosting Service

In spite of the fact we've been dissed by Sling in the past, I continue to be fascinated with the SlingBox, and how it disrupts the media business.

The latest cool service is the Techware Slingbox Hosting Service. These guys will host a Sling Box for you, and let you stream cable TV from Wisconsin to anywhere in the world. It's not cheap at $45/month, but it appears legit as far as not redistributing cable TV or satellite feeds.

If you're a Packers fan, for example, this is one great way to catch all the action. Not sure how pleased the NFL is with this arrangement though.

You can read more about it here.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 04:38 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: sling slingbox tivo | Comments (0)

July 13, 2007

Net Radio Reprieve

Custom radio services like Pandora or last.fm won't have to shutter - yet. Sound Exchange has agreed to not enforce the new rates right away, most likely trying to head off congressional intervention.

Read the wired magazine article here.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 06:48 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: riaa mp3 radio save net radio sound exchange | Comments (0)

July 04, 2007

Clear Channel Radio Online

In the past few days, Clear Channel has changed how their online radio stations work. They have made it harder to acquire a static URL that tunes properly to their stations. This is unfortunate, as it interferes with your legal right to automatically schedule recordings for listening later. A lot of online radio directories are similarly hosed.

Fortunately, we've come up with a solution in Replay A/V. If you're looking to record a Clear Channel station, just open Replay A/V and add it from the Media Guide using the Shows menu option. Until Clear Channel changes something, this works great! If your station doesn't work, just tell us, and we'll update our radio station database.

Speaking of Clear Channel, poking around on their site uncovers some interesting discoveries. They are trying to compete with XM/Sirius in the content space with their new Format Lab service. And they have some interesting on-demand music and video content too.

Some people say Clear Channel is getting too large, but the innovation they are doing is pretty impressive, and they are poised to do to the online radio space what they've done to the terrestrial space. Watch out!

Posted by Bill Dettering at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: clear channel radio kfi | Comments (0)

June 26, 2007

Silent Radio Day

Today is Radio Silence Day, when thousands of online radio music stations go silent to protest the upcoming increase in music fees. This canard promoted by the RIAA basically insures that any internet radio station goes out of business. Not only will fees increase, but they are retroactive to the past 18 months!

Pandora says it best. Read their home page here:
http://pandora.com/

Mad yet? Call your congressman!

Posted by Bill Dettering at 07:27 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: riaa music pandora mp3 | Comments (0)

May 31, 2007

Google Audio Ads

This is one of the weirdest things I've seen in a while: Google is setting up an Adwords-like system to be able to place and track radio ads. It's called Google Audio Ads.

No, this isn't online advertising - these are ads placed on terrestrial AM and FM radio stations. Ads are tracked by a callback phone number in the ads itself.

Why would Google undertake something so far outside their core area of expertise? Either it's incredibly stupid, or really smart.

Perhaps Google thinks it can take over another advertising area, duplicating the success of Adwords and Adsense. Adsense works well for the hosting sites, but in our experience it doesn't do nearly as well as targeted keyword advertising. Radio ads are usually expensive to run and ineffective unless you have a huge budget.

The other possibility is that they are setting up infrastructure for local advertising of all kinds. Location-based ads are hot in the investment community, and show a lot of promise, so perhaps this is Google's way of trying to dominate the sector before the other location-based technologies take hold.

Google Audio Ads an interesting development, but don't be surprised to see it become a total flop.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 01:52 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: google audio ads radio | Comments (0)

April 20, 2007

Save Pandora

Pandora - the awesome music recommendation internet radio site - is likely to shut down if the new rates for Internet Radio broadcasters are upheld. This is an RIAA backed initiative that will essentially kill Internet Radio, or at least force it overseas.

Read Pandora's letter to learn more.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 02:10 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: pandora riaa internet radio music | Comments (0)

April 16, 2007

New Video Technologies from Adobe, Microsoft

Adobe and Microsoft are gearing up for battle in the next wave of internet video delivery technology. This article from Streamingmedia.com gives a great summary of what we have to look forward to.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: video web microsoft adobe | Comments (0)

February 28, 2007

FAIR USE? Sort of.

Ars Technica has a nice analysis of the new pro-consumer FAIR USE bill being proposed in the USA. It's a start, but there's still a long way to go before true "fair use" recording rights are protected.

Basically, the bill gives hardware companies an exemption, but does nothing for software. To me, it seems like a way to get the content companies and the hardware companies on the same side, and then crush the software companies, where all the true innovation is taking place.

Go read the entire article.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 06:14 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: riaa fair use perform copyright drm recording mp3 | Comments (0)

January 13, 2007

PERFORMance Anxiety

Looks like the PERFORM act just won't die. This is the nonsense legislation - sponsored by the RIAA - that would force satellite, digital, and Internet radio providers (but not over-the-air radio) to implement measures designed to restrict the ability of listeners to record audio from the services.

On the Internet side, given the plethora of radio stations all over the world, this would basically kill American Internet radio.

You can read more from Ars Technica.

Once you're sufficiently outraged, contact your senators here.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 01:32 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: PERFORM act RIAA copyright fair use radio | Comments (0)

January 10, 2007

Sling Media's Clip and Sling

Sling has finally announced their "recording" solution for Sling Box owners - "Clip and Sling".

I don't think it placates any of the hundreds of people who come to us looking for a way to record their Sling streams on their PC. But it does have some "gee whiz" appeal.

*sigh*

Posted by Bill Dettering at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: sling slingbox clip and sling | Comments (0)

December 27, 2006

Avoid Windows Vista at all costs?

This article in Techworld paints a picture of a business disaster waiting to happen, all because of overzealous DRM (copy protection) in Microsoft's new Vista Operating System.

Clearly Microsoft has gone out of their way to disable recording of premium content in Vista. It will be interesting to see what customers think.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 10:44 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: vista drm microsoft | Comments (0)

September 27, 2006

PERFORM act will kill Internet Radio

I just received this email from iPAc (reprinted in full):

Few power plays are as blatant and harmful as the PERFORM Act (S. 2644)
from northern California's own Dianne Feinstein. Simply put, PEFORM revokes
your right to tape radio shows while imposing draconian DRM on all internet
radio.

The Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA) explicitly allows a person to record
radio programs for their own personal use. In exchange, we all pay a
Hollywood Cartel tax on some blank CDs and tapes. It's a bill that has
served us well for over a decade, but now with advanced satellite radio
receivers that allow paying subscribers to time shift their favorite
programs the Hollywood Cartels are asking for 'backsies' on the AHRA.
Always eager to please her real constituents in Hollywood, Dianne Feinstein
stepped up to the plate and introduced PERFORM.

But, if overturning the AHRA wasn't enough, Feinstein slipped in a
provision that changes the Copyright Act to force Internet radio stations
to impose the most severe and draconian DRM possible. All of the Internet
radio stations that you know and love will be forced to abandon MP3
streams. Innovative companies like Pandora are already heavily burdened and
taxed by the DMCA, forcing them to spends additional money to license DRM
is an undue burden.

Who does Dianne Feinstein represent? Is it Northern California, the
economic engine for the entire state and the nation? Or is it Southern
California, the repressive monopolists that seek to limit expression and
technology?

You can find out how you can stop Senator Feinstein's PERFORM Act at
http://ipaction.org/action/perform

Thanks very much for your continued support of IPac.

Sincerely,

Jake Fisher
Executive Director
IPac.org

Posted by Bill Dettering at 02:52 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: dmca drm perform feinstein pandora mp3 music radio | Comments (0)

September 26, 2006

Finetune vs. Pandora

Just got wind of an interesting new Music/Radio site: Finetune. Check it out!

You can build playlists, and then let others listen to them. Plus, it can build custom radio stations based upon a favorite artist and it's playlist data.

The design is neat, and once you know it's a radio site, it's a great way to start listening with no hassles. And if you want to become a DJ, building your own 45 track (or more) playlist/station is easy.

And it works great with Replay Music too.

Check it out!

Posted by Bill Dettering at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: finetune pandora mp3 radio music | Comments (0)

September 22, 2006

Unbelieveable

I just learned today YouTube posted it's first video online in December 2005.

Is that amazing or what???

Look for some amazing YouTube recording tricks from us in the near future.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 09:42 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: YouTube | Comments (0)

September 21, 2006

Fair Use Threatened

I received this email from Jake Fisher of iPac today, and I'm taking the liberty of reprinting it in full. It's an important topic - the Big Media companies are threatening to take away our Fair Use recording rights.

Here's the letter in full:

Dear IPac supporter,

In June we brought attention to S1RA (The Section 115 Reform Act), which
has the laudable goal of bringing mechanical licensing into the 21st
Century. However, buried deep within the legislation was a provision that
required all incidental copies of a song to have their own separate
license. In other words, a copyright holder could charge you for every
copy that exists in a caching server, your ISP's own cache, or even the
buffer on your computer. It's double dipping, redefining fair use, and now
it's back and worse than ever. S1RA lives on under the title of the
Copyright Modernization Act of 2006. Sounds ominous enough. It still
includes all the terrible provisions of S1RA by taking aim at Internet
radio and satellite radio by gutting the Audio Home Recording Act, which
explicitly allows devices to time-shift radio.

CMA is trying to elbow itself into law by wrapping itself in a good bill:
the Orphan Works Act of 2006. This bill is an important piece of
legislation that removes significant hurdles that artists have to jump to
create their art. Right now, with our over-reaching copyright regime, if a
documentary film makers wants to include an image, film clip, or song in
their work, but no copyright holder can be found, the film maker is out of
luck. OWA allows the artist to include the work, assuming they employed due
diligence to track down the copyright holder, and would severely limit any
damages stemming from an infringement suit if the owner suddenly
reappeared.

However good the Orphan Works Act is, S1RA is worse and negates the
benefits that come from OWA. We cannot sacrifice our technological future
by imposing an innovation tax on internet and satellite radio.

For a FAQ on CMA and to find out how to stop it please see:
http://ipaction.org/campaigns/cma/

Thanks very much for your continued support of IPac.

Sincerely,

Jake Fisher
Executive Director
IPac

Posted by Bill Dettering at 09:21 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: dmca drm ipac copyright sira sirius xm recording | Comments (0)

September 19, 2006

To the Zune, Alice!

This article from the EFF highlights a curious feature of the new Microsoft Zune - namely that it won't play songs purchased using Microsoft's own Plays For Sure system. And it apears they may be abandoning the technology altogether.

If you were unlucky enough to purchase songs using Plays For Sure, you can at least re-record them for your own personal use.

I guess now that Microsoft is competing against its former partners with their own Media Players it's time to throw them all under the bus. While Microsoft does use their hardware/software business model effectively in the PC business, burning your hardware partners can't bode well for future projects. Microsoft PC anyone?

Personally - I'm a big fan of the iPod, and I also welcome a serious challenger to the media player space. I hope the Zune does well, but if this flops, nobody's going to break Apple's stranglehold for a long while.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: microsoft zune ipod drm dmca | Comments (0)

September 08, 2006

TimeTrax goes belly-up

TimeTrax - the hardware/software combo that let people record XM and Sirius radio - is no longer. If you recall, these are the guys that made XM discontinue the XM PCR because of worries people were recording and splitting songs off of the radio.

It's not that surprising - the business model was fundamentally flawed - as people weren't willing to pay $200 for hardware to do this when programs like Replay Music and Replay A/V do a better job for a lot less.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 02:21 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: timetrax sirius xm | Comments (0)

August 28, 2006

Just how sensitive are they?

The RIAA shows an "abundance of sensitivity."

Posted by Bill Dettering at 09:09 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: riaa mp3 | Comments (0)

August 23, 2006

I agree with the RIAA

Hell has not frozen over.

The RIAA is behind a compulsory licensing system for mobile phone ring tones, which would make it easier for everyone to adopt the technology. The alternative where royalties are negotiated song-by-song is being pushed by the Songwriters Guild among others.

Radio is another place where compulsory licensing is in effect, and this system was a great catalyst to the nascent radio technology.

Article here in Hollywood Reporter.

Now, if only the music labels would come up with a way to purchase unrestricted MP3s at a reasonable cost... then Hell would really have frozen over!

Posted by Bill Dettering at 09:39 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: riaa mp3 licensing | Comments (0)

August 03, 2006

Google Snags IPTV Executive

This is interesting. From Fierce IPTV:

Back in April the industry got a whiff of Google's future IPTV plans when the company sent out its feelers for IPTV talent: engineers, programmers and product managers. Now, OpenTV, an IPTV middleware company, has announced that its CTO, Vincent Dureau, has joined Google at a "senior engineering role." Dureau was responsible for developing OpenTV's key technologies, global business relationships and, in the early days, building its engineering team from scratch. Most interestingly, Dureau took the lead of OpenTV's advanced advertising technologies, even penning a white paper that reads: "We believe that addressable advertising, where specific video ads are targeted to specific audiences will become central to advertising on digital television within the next 5 years... advertisers will be ready to pay premium rates to cable operators who can demonstrate increased efficiency of their advertising network through targeting."

Just last month, two research scientists at Google developed a way for your computer to quickly identify which programs you're watching on TV and feed you personalized content based on that information. While the scientists harp on the increased personalization aspects of it, you can bet Google has its eye on an advanced advertising platform that repurposes its keyword advertising scheme for TV. Looks like Dureau could be the one spearheading this initiative.

More from the Fierce IPTV blog link.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: google iptv | Comments (0)

July 23, 2006

Engadget weighs in on Sling Encryption

This article is a party-neutral summary of the At-Large Recorder and Slingbox device encryption issue.

It's always a delight to read well-written articles. Way to go Engadget!

Posted by Bill Dettering at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: sling slingbox media tv tivo drm | Comments (0)

PC Mag Editor not happy about Sling Encryption

From Stu, one of our best customers and sources of information:

Jim Louderback, the editor of PC Mag, made a mention that his favorite add-on no longer works. He was referring to your Slingbox recorder. This was done on his podcast - What's New Now? (July 21)

Looks like Sling is going to be facing more competition - not just from Sony's LocationFree, but also new companies called HAVA and AirEpoch. It's going to be hard to maintain the encryption policy, especially if the competition is open to recording.

I predict that there will be a permanent recording solution for Slingbox devices by January 1, 2007. Or even earlier if they want to HAVA good Christmas season.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: sling slingbox drm tivo recording tv media video | Comments (0)

July 21, 2006

Another great reason to record Sling streams

Here's an At-Large Recorder customer who used At-Large Recorder and Slingbox to record closed-circuit surveillance video:

"I love the software and it helped catch a break-in at my house. Turned it over to the authorities."
- Art Gimpleton

This is one example of a very good use of recording technology via a vis Sling.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: sling slingbox recording drm tivo | Comments (0)

July 19, 2006

Fight for your right to record

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.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: sling drm slingbox tivo media video | Comments (0)

Sling and Applian in PC Magazine

We're still hoping Sling comes up with a way to work with us so their customers can make recordings for their personal use.

In the meantime, PC Magazine has hooked onto the story:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1991289,00.asp

Posted by Bill Dettering at 08:15 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: sling slingbox tivo drm tv media video recording applian | Comments (0)

July 15, 2006

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.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 06:34 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: sling slingbox media tivo drm pvr encryption security tv | Comments (0)

July 13, 2006

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.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: sling slingbox pvr tivo mlb drm recording tv dvr | Comments (1)

June 26, 2006

Broadcast Flag legislation

I got this today from ipacaction.org:

Dear IPac Supporter,

Tomorrow the Senate Judiciary committee continues its markup of Senator
Ted Stevens' omnibus communications bill. It's a lengthy and complicated
piece of legislation, but hidden deep within are the broadcast and audio
flags. Both represent the latest and perhaps most desperate attempts by
the Hollywood cartels to control innovation, roll back fair use, and
disrupt the free market.

The bill mandates a government technology committee that would approve
or reject devices based on their functionality, just like Hollywood
wants. For example, new personal video recorders could be blocked from
the market for having too much functionality, allowing users to tweak
their settings, or interfacing with non-approved devices in your
entertainment system. This kind of silly bottleneck would be laughable
if it wasn't so close to becoming law.

Now is the time to let our representatives know how the flags would
decimate the consumer electronics industry while erasing our fair use
rights.

Please call the Senators on the Judiciary committee and let your voice
be heard.

http://ipaction.org/blog/2006/06/help-lower-broadcast-flag.html

Posted by Bill Dettering at 01:57 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: broadcast flag drm | Comments (0)

June 13, 2006

Sirius locks out the Blind

Sirius just added a new "feature" to their online listening system whereby users must now enter a "captcha" to listen online. (A captcha is a human-only-readable series of letters used to prevent automated logins.)

From our perspective, this totally prevents automatic tuning and unattended recording of radio shows. It's a bummer for our users.

From the perspective of Blind users (of which we have many), this is a disaster. Now there's no way for them to listen online at all.

I don't understand the business sense behind this. If you're going to have an online service at all, why make it more difficult (or impossible) for your users to use it. It's not as if automatic recordings of the online feeds are hurting sales of their new player-recorder, since they agreed to limit its distribution anyway.

The possibilities are:

A) They are a bunch of morons.

or

B) There's a good business reason for this I haven't thought of, and I'm the moron.

I'll go with A unless anyone submits a comment convincing me otherwise. Sirius employees are extra welcome to respond. Sirius management is extra-extra welcome to respond.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 08:32 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: sirius satellite radio xm captcha blind | Comments (0)

May 19, 2006

XM's Statement defending Lawsuit

This came into my mail box today from XM regarding the meritless lawsuit over their recording receivers. Definitely well articulated:

Everything we've done at XM since our first minute on the air is about giving you more choices. We provide more channels and music programming than any other network. We play all the music you want to hear including the artists you want to hear but can't find on traditional FM radio. And we offer the best radios with the features you want for your cars, homes, and all places in between.

We've developed new radios -- the Inno, Helix and NeXus -- that take innovation to the next level in a totally legal way. Like TiVo, these devices give you the ability to enjoy the sports, talk and music programming whenever you want. And because they are portable, you can enjoy XM wherever you want.

The music industry wants to stop your ability to choose when and where you can listen. Their lawyers have filed a meritless lawsuit to try and stop you from enjoying these radios.

They don't get it. These devices are clearly legal. Consumers have enjoyed the right to tape off the air for their personal use for decades, from reel-to-reel and the cassette to the VCR and TiVo.

Our new radios complement download services, they don't replace them. If you want a copy of a song to transfer to other players or burn onto CDs, we make it easy for you to buy them through XM + Napster.

Satellite radio subscribers like you are law-abiding music consumers; a portion of your subscriber fee pays royalties directly to artists. Instead of going after pirates who don't pay a cent, the record labels are attacking the radios used for the enjoyment of music by consumers like you. It's misguided and wrong.

We will vigorously defend these radios and your right to enjoy them in court and before Congress, and we expect to win.

Thank you for your support.

It's good to see them willing to fight. It's too bad Sirius didn't have the cohones to do the same.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 09:02 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: xm sirius lawsuit inno helix nexus satellite | Comments (0)

May 14, 2006

End of allofmp3.com?

Looks like allofmp3.com - that funny Russian site that sold songs at a fraction of the cost of iTunes - is dead.

These guys were taking advantage of a loophole in Russian Copyright Law, but apparently the powers that be have shut them down for good - one way or another. I'm not sad about it, as songs should be $0.25 anyway.

We've also seen an uptick in Replay Music sales in the last couple of days. I'm not sure if there's any correlation, but maybe now more people are recording songs and listening before buying since $0.25 per song was a no-brainer, and $0.99 per song can add up quickly.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 11:40 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: allofmp3 itunes mp3 riaa download music apple | Comments (0)

April 28, 2006

MP3 Streaming to be Banned

If you are OK with all streaming radio becoming copy protected, then skip this post. Otherwise, take some action.

First, read this article. This will make your hair stand on end.

Next, contact Senator Feinstein and Senator Graham, and explain to them politely what a bad idea this is. Your home state senator should hear from you, too.

This has gotta get killed. And fast.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 01:01 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: perform drm mp3 recording riaa | Comments (0)

March 28, 2006

DRM has deep flaws...

... but we already knew that, right? Now a researcher comes up with the same conclusion.

It's the business models that need changing, according to this article in PC World.

Make those downloadable songs $0.25, and easy to use and transfer, and there won't be any issues any longer.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: drm music mp3 | Comments (0)

March 06, 2006

Audio Broadcast Flag

Apparently, the "Broadcast Flag" just won't die. One congressman is working on cahoots with the RIAA to deny your right to make recordings of ANY digital radio content without the permission of the broadcaster.

See this article from Ars Technica.

What's next - outlawing CD Ripping? Outlawing TiVo?

Please call or write your congress-person today and let them know what a hugely BAD IDEA this bill is.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 09:37 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: broadcast flag riaa tivo drm audio mp3 recording ipod | Comments (0)

February 03, 2006

Howard Stern and Sirius need a clue

It seems people are bypassing Sirius and getting the Howard Stern show every day from file sharing services, according to the L.A. Times.

How long until Sirius makes the Stern show available over the Web? I have a Sirius subscription, and I can't listen unless I have my Sirius receiver handy, with a clear view of the eastern skies. Stern's show isn't available online. What if I want to listen in the office? Or in my basement? How dumb is Sirius management?

Anyone who knows anything about the history of Web media will see it's in Sirius's best interest to make Stern available over the Web. Look at how (the original) Napster forced the Music Companies to make songs available for download. And now witness how BitTorrent is forcing TV shows to be able to be purchased via Google, iTunes, and many more upcoming services. And these services are SUCCESSFUL!

Yeah - I know $500M is a lot of money, and you want every Stern fan to become a Sirius subscriber to recoup that investment. (Not to mention the cost of launching that satellite.) But if you can't deliver the show to your listeners in places that don't have a view of the eastern sky, then people are going to find ways to get it for free. Or just move on to Podcasts and other media. The number of fans Stern is losing every day must be enormous. They've gotta be concerned.

XM lets you subscribe for online listening only - why not Sirius? For customers, these services are all about the content, and not the delivery mechanism.

I predict Stern will be available for paid online listening within 6 months. And although it should be done ASAP, it probably won't be. C'mon Sirius - prove me wrong!

Posted by Bill Dettering at 02:10 AM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: howard stern sirius file sharing | Comments (1)

December 27, 2005

The new face of File Sharing

By accident, I came across the Radio Blog Club today. It's cool - you can pick a song, and listen to it instantly from someones "radio blog", and then other songs from a playlist containing that song.

Looking at it like a radio station, it totally violates all the rules. Looking at it like a free Rhapsody-like service, it's legit, except that the artists don't get paid.

Of course, it works great with Replay Music, but don't expect this service to be around forever. They are getting tons of traffic though.

Posted by Bill Dettering at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Technorati Tags: napster kazaa file sharing rhapsody radio blog club music mp3 | Comments (0)

December 14, 2005

Are we getting Sirius yet?

As the big day approaches when Howard Stern goes off the air and onto Sirius satellite radio, I figured it would be a good time to get a Sirius subscription. A lot of people are going to want to record Stern via Sirius online, and we'll be ready for them with a new version of Replay Radio.

This was actually an interesting exercise, as I come from the Replay Radio + iPod perspective, and somehow having a couple hundred radio feeds is sort of new.

So I got the StarMate receiver - both a home and a car set. First, tried to hook it up in my house. The antenna must point east. The stereo is on the west side of the house. Major bummer. My stereo also has an iPod cradle, which has always worked well.

Next - to install into the car. There is a suction-cup thing that affixes to the windshield, and you place the receiver there. After a few tries, I got it to stick, and hooked up the antenna wire (about 15 fed of threading through the minivan), as well as the stereo out and cigarette lighter adapter. It all worked well, but I was haunted by what my wife would say about all those wires. A professional installation is preferable.

Listening was great - there are a lot of talk and music channels to choose from. And no ads, of course.

(Aside: the one thing that bugged me about the Sirius receiver was how the up and down buttons worked. The left/right buttons let you view different categories of stations, and the up/down buttons let you choose stations in those categories by moving up and down in the list. That part was nice. Once you're listening to a station, the up and down buttons change stations, but in a different direction than they are displayed. The up button increases the channel number, moving down in the list, and the down button increases the channel, moving up in the list.)

Where Sirius has an advantage over iPod + Replay Radio is in a couple of areas. First of all, it's nice to have live content like news, sports and traffic. Next, you don't have to sync the device up - it's always ready to play whatever you want. And of course, on January 9, Howard Stern.

Where Replay Radio (and Replay Music) + iPod excels is in having complete control of your listening experience. Being able to skip ahead is something you just cannot do with live streams (or at least until someone invents a time machine). Don't like that song? Just skip to the START of the next one. With radio, you always wind up in the middle of a song when you change stations. Listening to recorded stations on the iPod is soooooooooo flexible.

It occurs to me that Sirius isn't really in the radio business - they are in the content business. In that vein, Replay Radio + iPod rules, as we have far more listening options available.

The best thing of all would be to have a combo Sirius radio / MP3 player that you can transfer Replay Radio and Replay Music recordings to. Given the impending bloodbath between the Record Companies and the Consumer Electronics companies over recording features in some of the new Sirius receivers, the only way you may ever be able to get that true TiVo-like experience for radio is going to be by using Replay Radio.

Any hardware makers listening out there? We'd love to work with you!<