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

[Jesse Guardiani]

Joe Votour wrote:
> --- Rob Goretsky <rgoretsky at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> I am interested in building preconfigured MythTV
>> boxes and then selling 
>> them.  I plan on donating a percentage of my profits
>> directly to MythTV 
>> development, and will contribute code updates/fixes
>> to MythTV.
>>
>> I have looked through these archives for information
>> about some legal issues 
>> surrounding the retail resale of preconfigured
>> MythTV boxes, but this is all 
>> I have found so far:
>>
>> 1) Including DVD ripping software is illegal.
>> 2) Including DVD playback program is illegal.
>> 3) Including any ROM images for video games (for
>> MythGame) that are not 
>> owned by me is illegal.
>>
>> Other than these points, are there any other legal
>> issues that I should be 
>> aware of when planning on selling preconfigured
>> MythTV boxes?   Can anybody 
>> point me to a good reference on this?
>>
>> Thank you for your help!
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Rob Goretsky
>>
>>
>>     
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>   
>
> Don't forget:
> 4. MP3 (used for software encoding/frame capture
> cards) is patented (by Fraunhofer, I think)
> 5. MPEG-4 (used for software encoding and sometimes
> transcoding and playback) is patented.
> 6. MPEG-2 (used for playback) is patented.
>
> Although those three items are handled by GPLd
> software (LAME and ffmpeg/libmpeg), you would still
> have to negotiate royalties with the patent holders if
> you sold the machines in a country where the patents
> are honored.
>
> (Yes, if you live in the United States and you use
> MythTV there's a very good chance you're infringing on
> peoples' patents.  They don't come after us, probably
> for the reason that it would highlight the flaws in
> the patent system and spoil it for them.)
>   

So sell the hardware and create an open source project to host the software.

-- 
Jesse Guardiani
Programmer/Sys Admin
jesse at wingnet.net