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

[Dewey Smolka]

I think there are plenty of ways to make a business out of MythTV, but
of all the possibilities a shrink-wrapped pre-configured box is
probably the worst.

One way you could go is selling and installing complete, integrated
media/home theater systems with Myth at the core. This has the
advantage that you're selling your labor and expertise rather than
commodity parts and GPL software.

I doubt you could net more than a couple hundred dollars per
pre-configured box, but for for a full installation -- i.e. MBE w/
RAID, projecter, a couple remote FEs, maybe some in-wall LAN wiring,
etc, you could clear several thousand per installation. This would
take some clever marketing and a lot of luck, but I have to believe
that there are people who would pay a bundle to have a properly
configured 'dream system.'

Remeber that Myth is a whole lot more than a PVR -- it is an
incredibly powerful and flexible media engine. There are ways to
leverage that which do not bump against legal barriers. For example,
just about every local TV station keeps archives of all the local news
broadcasts, their own and all the competitors. But these archives are
still tape-based, (at least the one I most recently saw in Chicago
is).

If you took this archive of local news, put in on a random access
system (such as MythTV), and tied the searchable database to the
actual clips  . . . this is a niche market but potentially very
lucrative. (There would also be plenty of development required to make
Myth and MySQL do what they had to, but we all look forward to seeing
the source).

This same type of system could be pitched  to an even smaller and more
lucrative niche market -- pro sports teams. What would it be worth to
have a searchable, random-access system capable of pulling up every
pitch Randy Johnson threw on the road at night, or every play in which
the Denver Broncos blitzed the safety?

In the first example, there's still the listings issue to deal with,
but since you're selling the equipment and installation, it would be
much easier to assert to the client and to whomever else that the
guide data is available but not provided by you, and that you are in
no way responsible for it. In the second example, guide data is not a
factor since the client would be generating their own data based on
content and cut point rather than broadcast schedule.

Of course if you have the cash to pursue licensing deals there are
more possibilities. E.g. take a couple T1s and supply an apartment
complex or residential development with broadband, VoIP, and Myth.
(Note, this is getting on some very shakey ground as you would be in
effect rebroadcasting, but since Comcast is developing something
similar then something may be possible at some point, albeit with a
lot of cash and some very good lawyers. This would also require a
licensing deal with TMS, or else some other means of getting guide
data).

Heck, you could turn Myth into something that has nothing to do with
PVR functions -- like a surveillance system, or a jukebox, or a
multimedia kiosk, and so on.

The media engine is so powerful and so flexible that once you start
thinking about who could use it, the possibilites seems endless.