[mythtv] mythmovie grabber issue (ToS)

Matt S. skd5aner at gmail.com
Thu Jan 15 17:01:18 UTC 2009


On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 11:28 AM, Stuart Morgan <stuart at tase.co.uk> wrote:
> On Thursday 15 January 2009 16:00:17 Matt S. wrote:
>> So - how (where) exactly does Boxee get all this data that doesn't
>> violate any Terms of Service and why can't myth do the same?  I keep
>> seeing all these other cool apps that gather metadata for movies,
>> videos, CDs, showtimes, weather, etc, and all of them can only get it
>> a couple of different ways:
>>
>> 1) Find a place that provides an open service to get the data from
>
> Which is exactly what we, and other applications like XBMC, Boxee, Meedio and
> Media Portal are doing. They are all starting to switch to legit sources such
> as themoviedb.org, thetvdb.org etc (at least where such a service exists).
>
>> I understand why myth is trying to stay on the "right side" of the
>> argument here, but there are a lot of other apps (even FOSS apps) that
>> get this data some how.  Some of them are getting extremely popular -
>> so why not follow in their footsteps and do whatever it is their doing
>> that works for them?
>
> Everyone else shoplifts, so I should too?
>
> When they are sued, I suppose all their users will chip in to pay the legal
> bills? Or more likely they'll scatter in every direction.
>

Like I said - I do understand and agree with why the decisions were
made to remove some of the grabbers used previously for weather, movie
info, etc.  I think it's a good thing that myth is playing on the safe
side, as I mentioned earlier.  My only question was, what are other
people doing that _is_ legit?  That doesn't necessarily mean that what
they are doing is actually legit, but just curious how Boxee in
particular was doing it.  I did not intend to suggest that myth should
just "let it slide" and go back to scraping sites that disallow it.
At least alternatives are poping up now! :-)

>> Also - to play devil's advocate - has any site/service/etc ever
>> complained to myth about ToS issues?  Did IMDB ever notice myth users
>> retrieving data and ask for that to be removed?
>
> They noticed and anyone using the IMDB grabbers for mythvideo can tell you
> that. In addition to multiple layout changes designed to make scrapping
> harder, they started serving extremely low quality, low res posters to
> requests originating from scrappers.
>
> IMDB were approached several times for their permission, each time they
> refused.
> --

I suppose I'm not surprised.  Hopefully TMDB will be able to fill the
void.  Also, it'll be nice to see some of the open TV oriented data
sites (thetvdb) to eventually feed some additional data into myth.

Thanks!
Matt


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