[mythtv-users] Zap2it Labs Shutting Down?

[Chris Petersen]

Dan Ritter 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.

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

> 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).

-Chris

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