[mythtv-users] Zap2it Labs Shutting Down?
stuart
stuart at xnet.com
Wed Jun 20 19:31:53 UTC 2007
Chris Petersen wrote:
> Srikant Sharma wrote:
>> Is it possible for us (mythtv-users) to convince them to share the
>> data with a very limited number of users? We users can later
>> distribute.propagate the data using some peer-to-peer protocol. This
>> will alleviate the load on their servers and we can still manage to
>> get the listings.
>
> Their main concern is that there are people making money off of services
> that they are giving away for free. Though I don't speak for TMS, I can
> guarantee you that they'd never release listings data to the community
> for distribution (it was suggested once when DD was first established).
> Their whole point is that they don't mind individual users getting the
> data (hence offering it for free on zap2it.com), but if someone is
> selling a product that uses the TMS listings, they need to pay for the
> right to do so.
>
> To reiterate, bandwidth is likely not a major concern, but people
> violating the terms of the user agreement are. Without a way to prevent
> it, they're shutting down the entire service.
>
> -Chris
What a mess. Needs some creative thinking... However, everything I
think of requires some work at the server end... Something TMS probably
doesn't want to do (or should not have to do) when they are giving away
a service for private individual use...
Anyways...
How's about setting up a subscription service that requires each user to
have a unique key to decode personally encoded data. You start out with
the current mythtv community. Then, water mark the data for half the
uses. If the water mark shows up in commercial use, flag those users and
repeat the process on half the remaining users. Repeat the process
until you identify the commercial user(s) and stop sending them data
they can decode with their key. Eventually you will weed out initial
commercial users. At such a point, start a new policy which restricts
creation of new accounts. That is, something like a cooling off period
of say 1 week. That way, if you get flagged you can't turn around and
create a new account right away. This would also make private users
more protective of their keys.
Nothing is totally safe, and the above approach will take continuous
effort. And, dare I say it, sounds very Big Brother'ish. Anyone have a
better one?
---
By the way - at least in the states - doesn't PBS transmit all local
listings (i.e. commercial and public stations)?
More information about the mythtv-users
mailing list