[mythtv-users] Another commercial MythTV box

[chris at cpr.homelinux.net]

On Thu, Jun 30, 2005 at 02:37:22PM +1200, Nick Rout wrote:
> > What really worries me is whether or not these commercial MythTV boxes
> > are using labs.zap2it.com for their listings or not.  The folks at
> > zap2it provide free listings for NON-COMMERCIAL use only, and have
> > noticed some for-profit products starting to download listings.  They
> > have hinted that if it doesn't stop they will have to take some action
> > (the easiest of which would be simply to unplug their server).
> 
> If I buy one of these devices and then use it in my home, that appears
> to me to be non-commercial use. As far as zap2it.com is concerned it
> places no greater load than if i brewed my own mythbox.

That's within the letter of the EULA but seems to be contrary to their 
open-source goals.  In their "Open Letter to the Zap2It Labs Community" 
<http://docs.tms.tribune.com/tech/tmsdatadirect/zap2it/open_letter.html>
they say:

    "We at Tribune Media Services and Zap2it.com have been 
    privileged to offer a TV listings service to the open source 
    and freeware communities [...]  If you purchased a hardware or 
    software product that receives its television listings from 
    Zap2it Labs' DataDirect or, indirectly, through XMLTV, you may 
    be violating our contract."

At the very least, I would be curious to know whether or not these 
commercial boxes require the consumer to subscribe independently to the 
labs.zap2it.com service.  That would be technically legal (although 
nothing stops Zap2It from discontinuing their service if they don't 
like what's happening).  If, on the other hand, the vendor is proxying 
the data or stuffing the subscription information so that the customer 
bypasses the EULA and survey then that would be a completely different 
situation.