[mythtv-users] Schedules Direct: some more actual info

[Jay R. Ashworth]

Unburying this one too, for people who killfiled the long thread;
thanks Daniel.

On Wed, Aug 08, 2007 at 05:20:13PM -0400, Daniel Kristjansson wrote:
> On Tue, 2007-08-07 at 15:43 -0600, Brian Wood wrote:
> > On Tuesday 07 August 2007 15:09, Braindead wrote:
> > > A non-profit organization doesn't mean people aren't going to
> > > profit, even though technically they are receiving compensation
> > > for services. Many people who run non-profit organizations make
> > > huge salaries, they aren't profits technically.
> > >
> > > I'm not suggesting that's the case here (I certainly hope it's
> > > not). But just because an organization is "non profit" doesn't
> > > really mean much at all.
> >
> > "Non-profit" can mean a lot of things. Most people confuse
> > "non-profit" with 403C (I think) which means that contributions to
> > that entity are tax-deductible. You can also have a "non-profit"
> > that does not meet those requirements.
> >
> > You also have to deal with various legal matters, like what happens
> > to the corporations assets if it disolves, I believe there is some
> > requirement that contributed funds go someplace in keeping with
> > the intent of the contributors. All these things have to be worked
> > out, and I suspect the Myth developers are getting an education in
> > matters they never had to deal with previously, ultimately to the
> > benefit of us all.
>
> Yup, we had to name some non-profits to get any remnants upon
> dissolution. I think it was the EFF and the FSF, but don't quote me on
> that, I would want to check our records. And we are not a 501(c)(3),
> there is a many month application process for this. Though we will
> almost certainly apply for some type of favorable IRS status within
> the 18 month retroactive period. As Chris noted the board members are
> unpaid and have spent considerable time and more money than Chris
> mentioned on various aspects of getting this operation going.
>
> There should be an official announcement on schedulesdirect.org very
> soon.
>
> *** I'll try to explain some of this here, just don't take it as   ***
> *** the official word on things, as this e-mail hasn't been run by ***
> *** the other board members or our lawyers.                        ***
>
> We're still working out the actual fee and payment methods, but we
> have tested paypal integration and have looked at other payment
> methods. Because of the time constraints we will start with only a
> limited selection of automated donation methods where the listings
> data will be a member benefit. We will, of course, accept larger
> donations and contacting us will get you in touch with the right
> person for that. Because we don't know how many people will sign up,
> we will start with a relatively high quarterly membership fee which
> can just barely support the service if 10% of PVR users sign up. But
> we assume many more will sign up and allow us to have a much lower
> membership fee; we will have a better idea in about three months. The
> initial fee will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $15 for three
> months, and the low target we hope to achieve within the first year is
> somewhere around $20 for twelve months.
>
> We've negotiated access to the TMS data for both Canada and the USA,
> and for at least the first three months the data will be provided
> by through us but via TMS's Data Direct servers. We will handle all
> user support and billing problems. After the first three months we
> hope to switch to our own servers which will lower our per user cost
> and allow us to offer more flexible service levels for different
> membership levels. We may even have a no-cost option in exchange for
> some volunteer labor. Once we know our operating costs and have some
> estimates of our projected membership counts going forward we will
> offer more membership levels and listings service levels.
>
> As far as the listings data is concerned it will initially be very
> much like the labs service. Schedules Direct will be able to get
> corrections made and there may some limited additional data over the
> labs service, and Chris Petersen is working on flexibility in creating
> lineups, but otherwise it is the same data. We will continually work
> on improving the quality and the flexibility in using the data in
> non-commercial Open Source and "freeware" applications by our members.
>
> -- Daniel
>
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Jay R. Ashworth                   Baylink                      jra at baylink.com
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