[mythtv-users] Zap2it Labs Shutting Down?

Jay R. Ashworth jra at baylink.com
Wed Jun 20 20:00:18 UTC 2007


On Wed, Jun 20, 2007 at 11:26:33AM -0700, Chris Petersen wrote:
> > You can't copyright a title of a creative work. You can apply
> > for a trademark, but that doesn't restrict people from talking
> > about it. (I bought a box of Kleenex tissues yesterday. Want to
> > learn how to configure a cisco 2600?) And patents don't apply.
> 
> Call it trademark, then.  Either way, *most* tv show names belong to
> someone, and you can't legally publish information about them without
> proper attribution.

With all due respect, Chris...  no.   You've been misled.

Trademark protection protects you from very specific things: 

Dilution, disparagement, and passing off are the three most common,
though there are others, and in certain circumstances, you receive
geographic protection against others using the same mark.

Having your tradename used to discuss the product to which it applies,
no matter how structured the forum, is *not* something against which
you are granted protection by a trademark.

I can even say "Lost sucks!".    :-)

> TMS's descriptions do probably fall under "creative work", though.

This is a different issue, but the descriptions are almost certainly
provided by either the networks or the studios, and aren't TMS's work
product anyway.  They might be a licensee, but that doesn't give *them*
the right to sue anyone... and the descriptions, taken singluarly, are
likely de minimis anyway.

> > Now, TMS may have a contract with each and every television
> > station in North America... but I suspect that they don't, and 
> > that they may not even have an exclusivity clause. Consider PBS
> > stations. 
> 
> It doesn't take "each and every" station..  but if they have exclusivity
> (or near-exclusivity) agreements with most of the big ones, it makes it
> hard for a small group of users to get access to the data, expecially if
> we're all too cheap to consider paying more than $5-10/year (let alone
> per month).

Sure.

But see above; TitanTV doesn't appear to be sourcing TMS, at least not
solely.

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


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