[mythtv-users] Zap2It needs our help

[David Shay]

>
> I can see how they'd want people coming to their site to view the actual
> content, but for automated downloads, I don't think they would care.
>
> Maybe they could set it up so that you could only get the data from the
> mirrors via redirection from their site. So, you'd go to their site, make
> the request, and then it would redirect you to the mirror. The mirrors
could
> then run a script that would reject requests that weren't redirected.
>
> In this way, they could control the mirroring and it would leave the
control
> with them, which may make them more willing to do something like this.

Has anyone considered how they would actually do this?  I've seen people
volunteering their bandwidth, but this is not just straight file mirroring.
First, you would have to mirror their databases which include listings and
channel definitions for the entire US, plus some additional content.  Then,
you would have to mirror the personal preferences database, which contains
userIDs, passwords, and your selection of cable providers and channels.
THEN, you would have to run a SOAP server which accepts requests in the same
format as zap2it's.  Quite complex, and sharing quite a bit of zap2it's
intellectual capital, and quite a few privacy issues as well...  If I were
zap2it, I wouldn't do it.