[mythtv-users] Data Direct "service"

[Michael T. Dean]

On 04/07/2007 06:51 PM, David Kramer wrote:
> Bruce Markey wrote:
>   
>> That said, I honestly have always believed that one or more
>> people [AND I AM NOT THAT PERSON] has maintained a copy of the
>> XMLTV North America grabber that can grab from tvlistings.com .
>> If the DataDirect service became unavailable [WHICH I DO NOT
>> ANTICIPATE AND CERTAINLY HOPE DOES NOT HAPPEN], a scraper would
>> come to light [FROM SOMEONE THAT I HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF] and be
>> widely distributed within days [AND I WOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO
>> WITH ITS DISTRIBUTION].
>>
>> [I DIDN'T PLOT TO KILL JFK EITHER!]
>>     
>
> Thinking about DNS and NTP and other servers/protocols, would it not be 
> possible for one to write (but not widely distribute) a screen scraper 
> that could in turn answer requests and return XML, just as DD does?  And 
> if a few dozen (or a few hundred) people ran those screen scrapers, then 
> everyone else sucked that data, then TMS is not overburdened, no new 
> software is needed for myth, and the bandwidth burden is spread.

Re-read the service agreement you agreed to when you signed up for 
DataDirect--specifically the part about redistribution.  The listings 
data is a copyrighted compilation.  (And, there's an equivalent 
copyright/redistribution clause on the zap2it website, too.)

Mike