[mythtv-users] Supporting schedulesdirect.org

[Robert Current]

On 8/8/07, Brad DerManouelian <myth at dermanouelian.com> wrote:
> You should probably ask on the zap2it forums. They can answer those
> specific questions better than anyone can speculate on the mythtv
> forum since I imagine everyone here was using the service appropriately.

Good call, found this:
"- Continued use of the service to support commercial products, in
violation of the agreement.
- Commercial products continued to grow despite previous appeals that
this activity stop.
- There are significant changes to the supporting data structure
forthcoming and we could not devote resources to the continued upkeep
and enhancements of the service.
- Maintenance of the service is impacting our resource pool for other projects.
- We sought alternative options but were unable to find a solution.
- We recognize the hardship this creates for the user community. We
are open to alternative solutions and would consider proposals that
met the needs of the user community and our company.
- We looked into options to turn this into a paid service however we
do not have the infrastructure at this time."

That makes more sense to me.  They are a company, that wants to make
money, and someone else is making money off the stuff they gave away.
So, of course they have every right to stop it, and did.

Hmm.  Still not sure what "commercial products" means, but it must be
software?  Software grabbing listing data, packaged in a different
way, then sold to someone?

Sounds like schedulesdirect.org IS going to have the exact same
problems...  Somehow, they are going to have to act as "data cops" and
try to prevent the data from getting into some for-profit project.

And, honestly, if it IS a commercial product that is misusing the
data, why don't we all want to know about it?  If someone is out there
selling something that's based on data not rightfully obtained,
shouldn't honest people be told to avoid it?

Ok, that's sorta off topic, but not really.  Looks like the "problem"
isn't going to go away, sorta makes me worried for the
schedulesdirect.org guys...