[mythtv-users] Data Direct "service"

Jay R. Ashworth jra at baylink.com
Sat Apr 7 22:06:29 UTC 2007


On Tue, Apr 03, 2007 at 03:56:50PM -0700, Yeechang Lee wrote:
> I agree that a fix of the data really is best for all
> parties. However, I know better than to make any kind of ultimatum,
> however veiled it may be, because *Tribune Media Services isn't
> obligated to do anything*. The company is doing us a huge favor, and

Let's not be mistaken here, Lee: TMS is doing *itself* a favor.

We may be the direct beneficiaries... but they wouldn't have invested
the time and labor into it if they didn't benefit, on-going.

And, clearly, they do.

> would be doing so even if we had to fill our surveys every three days
> instead of every three months. That's not to say that there isn't a
> certain amount of quid pro quo occurring here--there is--but in the
> net tally of who is benefiting more, us or TMS, I know how the
> arithmetic works out.

Yup: TMS.

How many *tens of thousands* of Myth users aren't screenscraping their
listings?  (And, incidentally, skewing any advertising hit counts they
may have on those human-readable pages, possibly getting them in dutch
with their advertisers?)

> Again, there is no moral or legal obligation on TMS's part to not pull
> all XML access to the data immediately should it choose to do so. Of
> course, then there's nothing that prevents us from returning to the
> screenscraping days of yesteryore. But guess what?  *TMS knows this
> very well*, and its employees don't need your or anyone else lecturing
> them about it.

That's not necessarily true, though it would, indeed, be pretty to
think so.

How many people work at TMS?  

How many of them were involved in DataDirect?

How many of them still work there?

*I* don't know these answers, do you?

>      We are aware of this and are working to fix it.
> 
> I wish the TMS luck and godspeed in getting the issue fixed soon.

On this point, I certainly agree with both you and Bruce, different
though your phrasings of it are.  :-)

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra at baylink.com
Designer                          Baylink                             RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates        The Things I Think                        '87 e24
St Petersburg FL USA      http://baylink.pitas.com             +1 727 647 1274


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