[mythtv-users] Zap2it Labs Shutting Down?

Matt Harmon mattjharmon at yahoo.com
Thu Jun 21 16:21:34 UTC 2007


Hi,
   I've gotten some good advice from the community in
the past and I'm a happy mythtv user. It rocks!

   It rocks so much that I would be willing to donate
money to support it's development -- and furthermore,
donate money (a la Wikipedia.org) to support the
continued publication of channel information.

    There's been a lot of conversation about people
picking the data up and selling it or offering
subscriptions to people -- all of which runs up
against the "well, since the data is so expensive,
it's valuable enough for people to steal it."
Donations from the community of users -- voluntary
financial support -- seems a positive way to take some
of the antagonism out of the relationship. It also
reduces the likelihood of "data theft".

    My proposal is that the project put into place a
site and foundation to collect donations to purchase a
non-profit feed that the community can then use to
sustain not only the availability of programming data
but also, should the amount collected exceed what is
needed to maintain the feed, sustain the viability of
the project.

    The existence of an independent, open source
entertainment platform is a means to kill DRM and it's
monopoly creating capabilities must be supported. I
don't have the time to contribute code, but I can help
others and I can send money (perhaps the EFF -
http://www.eff.org/ -  can send some lawyers?).

    This is about control over my hardware -- and I,
at least (though I know there are others like me)
would be willing to kick $100 or so into the till
periodically to sustain that control.

    For me, mythtv isn't about the money, it's about
control. I would rather have $X per month go to the
support of an independent platform than send money to
a bunch of aging, clasping, greedy people who want to
dictate how many times -- and under what circumstances
-- I get to watch their (rarely good) content.

   Donations -- voluntarily collected -- would allow
the Tribune people to get their money and say to Tivo
and the rest, "What someone does with their feed is
their business, after all, don't your networks publish
this information on the web?" but would allow the
community to remain independent of the media oligarchy
which is fighting so desperately to control what we
watch and how we watch -- DESPITE OUR DESIRES AS THEIR
CUSTOMERS.

   Anyway, just my two cents (and possibly $100, if a
foundation is formed) and since I am unknown, perhaps
the EFF or the mythtv lead developers (i.e. people we
all pretty sure we can trust) could set up a
foundation to support this. I would gladly be the
first to donate.

Who will join me?

Thanks for reading,
Matt Harmon

P.S. - There will probably be people who say this will
never work and will attempt others not to do it. We
should give it a try...As an open community,
entertainment industry shills are free to come and
attempt to influence us (do you think they haven't
taken notice...Do you think they don't know the power
of this?) Consider that when people oppose this idea.



       
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