MythTV's core developers that now are part of SD seem to have done a complete 180, and it is so hypocritical.<br><br>MythTV was founded based on screen scraping. Myth's core developers had no problem with it back then. You never saw them forbidding discussion of scraping or even discouraging it. To the contrary, they wrote the screen scrapers and showed us all how to use them. In most countries besides the
U.S., screen scrapers are still the only way to use Myth. Myth's core developers still actively support that too.<br><br>So when the Myth developers are on the 'user' side of the equation they're all for screen scraping, and have never given a damn about TOS or any other 'rules'. There was never the slightest concern about the profit margins of the companies we were all "stealing" from, nor any guilt whatsoever. But suddenly, within the past month, Myth's developers are now on the opposite side of the fence since **THEY'RE** now part of an organization that sells guide data, just like Tribune. And suddenly, now with the shoe on the other foot, the myth devs that are SD members are totally changing their tune and become ardent supports of the need to protect IP, and are now accusing us all of stealing if we even discuss using screen scrapers again.
<br><br>So, the question is: Is it really the case that the SD guys have suddenly "seen the light" and decided it's crucial to protect the intellectual property of organizations like Tribune? Or is it this the evidence of blatant, irrational selfishness in that when they were on the 'receiving' end IP "theft" they were all for scraping, and now that they're on the receiving end of IP royalties they're against it?
<br><br>It's easy to get to the bottom of it. To all the guys who are against even discussing screen scraping because it's "stealing" someone else's IP, I want to remind you that Gemstar has a patent on the row/column style of EPG guide. If you've really turned a new leaf and want to protect IP (not just your own SD royalties) then you should also be insisting that Myth needs to license the patent from Gemstar. And TiVo, Echostar and many others have patents on things like pausing live tv. So are you willing to ban the use of those features, just like you want to ban screen scraping, because like screen scraping, pausing live tv is "stealing" someone else's IP? Will you really ban the use of any features of Myth that "steal" IP (which means myth is banned completely). Or is it that you're still ok with "stealing" other people's IP, it's only stealing *your* IP that is banned from the mailing lists? Will you still use analogies like 'stealing someone's cd player' when you're speaking of *other people's* IP (like Gemstar & TiVo), or do those analogies only apply to *your own* IP?
<br><br>Frankly I'm neutral to screen scraping vs. sd. It's the blatant hypocricy I find so irritating.