[mythtv-users] Legality of selling MythTV and its Components?

[Brian Wood]

On May 2, 2006, at 12:35 PM, Disconnect wrote:

> On Tue, 02 May 2006, Steven Adeff did have cause to say:
>
>> From my understanding, the GPL lets you sell products with the
>> software installed but not charge for the software itself. You are
>> also allowed to charge for support for the software.
>
> I'd recommend talking to a lawyer if you are unsure, but ISTR that  
> you can
> do "most anything" (including selling) gpl software, so long as you  
> don't
> then restrict the buyer's rights as far as distribution or  
> availability of
> source. (Lets not get wiggy about "anything", its in quotes for a  
> reason.)
>
> So you could, in theory, take gpl software and offer it for sale  
> for huge
> amounts of money. (You could even do this after adding all the  
> features
> everyone wants and making it the best app ever written).  The only  
> problem
> is you are unlikely to get more than one buyer, as they will then  
> give it
> away to everyone else.  (And I'm not sure, but it is probably legit  
> to only
> allow redistribution of sources, not binaries, so long as those  
> bins are
> generated from the provided sources.. but now its just getting weird.)
>
> (And fyi, no, you don't have to release your changes or  
> enhancements or
> source or anything...until you distribute the binaries. And that  
> loophole
> has been used against webapps rather successfully in the past.)


OK, my $0.02.

Even if we restrict the discussion to the U.S., I think the largest  
problem is the schedule information.

Even if the good folks who are supplying info to Myth users now  
(bless their hearts) were to sanction your product and agree to  
provide free information to its purchasers (which is nowhere near a  
certainty), most business experts would tell you that staking your  
enterprise on a "single source" supplier of something absolutely  
critical to your product's proper functioning is very bad business  
practice.

There are products on the market that get their program schedule data  
from the same source, but they have long-term contracts with Tribune  
Media (Eye TV, for example, gets data through a deal with Titan, who  
has a deal with Tribune through 2008, risky IMHO unless they have a  
second supplier to fall back on). I'm sure those contracts were not  
given gratis.

Still, you would want at least a second source in my opinion, unless  
you want the villagers chasing you with lighted torches, and at this  
point you don't even have a first source.

Trusting the purchasers to "make their own deal" with a data supplier  
could potentially screw up the works for all Myth users, causing you  
to have to move to another country and live under an assumed name. I  
have already seen "you know who you are" type posts from data  
suppliers in reference to certain parties already selling systems.

Unless you can guarantee the data that makes the whole thing work,  
you're dead in the water.