[mythtv] Google Play Store Dev fees

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 1:45 PM Greg Oliver <oliver.greg at gmail.com> wrote:

> Just throwing it out there ....

As I recall, Google charges a modest one time fee
($25?) so I suspect that is not really a hinderance
(Apple, on the other hand, has a recurring fee of
$99?/yr which may be more onerous for casual
developers).

The issue(s) that I recall being mentioned in the past were:

  - There is no (easy) way to version an app, you just
     get the latest, but the latest mfe would presumably only
     be the master branch (or last released?).
       . you could create a mfe30, mfe31, mfe32 app, but many
         users would not know which they need, and if they
         upgrade their BE they would have to remove the old
         and install the new, so users may still be in a bind, and
         as I recall Google strongly discourages app versioning
         like that.
       . Creating a mfe that is version agnostic *might* be
         technically possible (build/bundle every version and
         internally branch to the correct variant), but would
         be a lot of (unfunded) work.

  - The various apps (may) contain patented technologies,
     and some of the IP owners are rather intense regarding
     their IP protections.  Regardless of what you think
     about such IP, it is the law of the land for a number
     of the core developers.
       . Some IP owners simply issue removals
         (regularly scanning the appstore for violations),
       . Some IP owners have been rumored to go
         after license fees for distributing a binary
         with their IP included (and a free app that
         loses money with each download tends not
         to be of interest to most).
       . One could remove all the IP licensed tech, and
         while I do not know how much the removal of all
         the IP licensed tech would do to mfe/leanfront
         I suspect that it would not be a fully usable app.
       . Of course, the apps could use the licensed
         tech and then charge a modest fee, but
         you might be amazed at how much those
         licenses add up to, and in any case, unless
         you are a large large firm you likely will
         find it nigh impossible to obtain the license
         and get it reviewed by all the appropriate
         lawyers at an effort (and cost) level you would
         find acceptable.  I will note that the first step
         would to be engage an IP lawyer to review
         all possible IP claims (and it is not necessarily
         just the codecs, which are bad enough).