[mythtv-users] Written proof that we've all been conned about SD

[John Drescher]

> Myth was promoted from day 1 as being a "free" solution, and many of us
> actively contributed to support it for that reason.  Now some myth devs want
> to take our contributions and make it a for-profit venture that benefits
> only a few,
There is no profit with SD at all. The goal is to be financially
stable enough to reduce the price to less than $2 per month on a
yearly subscription.

> ban any discussions that might lead to it again being a "free
> solution"
The ban is on discussing piracy and other knowingly illegal
activities. I am not sure about how many net cops are out there but I
surely would avoid discussing illegal activity with any email account
I own especially on a list that has permanent archives.

> and saying "If you don't like the product [now that it's not
> free], DON'T USE IT."  You miss the whole point of the FOSS movement.  It's
> about a mutual commitment.  We all make a pledge to contribute to keep it
> free, and so when a few of the developers decide to pull the rug out and
> make it a non-free solution, that's a violation of that trust, particularly
> since it's clear they had options for keeping it free.
>
> >> William: After all, if you cannot afford $5/month you should not be
> building PVR systems, you probably should not even own a computer
>
> It has nothing to do with the amount.  It's a black & white issue: is it a
> free solution or not.
It is not and never was a "free" solution as you have to invest at
least $200 for a machine that runs the software. Many users spend 5 to
10 times that.

> I don't care if it's 1 cent or 1 million dollars.  I
> didn't get Myth because I couldn't afford TiVo's subscription.
I initially went to myth because I wanted a Tivo without all the silly
restrictions and without the monthly subscription price. But now after
using Myth for 3 years and seeing how good listings can make a PVR
much more advanced than VCR I am quite happy to pay $5 a month.

>The dollar
> amount isn't the issue.  The issue is that it's not a free solution anymore
> because the myth developers chose to partner with Tribune to turn it into a
> commercial venture even though they had alternatives that would have kept it
> free.  William, now you sound like Microsoft.
There is no partnering at TMS and SD are separate entities.

<snip>

> As far as why I'm posting this, it's not to bash SD or Myth for going
> commercial.  Whether you're for or against commercialization and
> profiteering is an opinion, liberal vs conservative thinking, that's all
> subjective opinions.  What is clear-cut and black & white is if the
> community is honest and objective and acknowledges the fact that SD exists
> for the purpose of generating a profit for Tribune and/or Myth devs, and
In my opinion neither are even remotely true. Myth is not a commercial
venture and TMS is not making any profit from this at all.

> that if the Myth community said 'no' to SD and threatened to do screen
> scraping,
TMS would then make the data harder to scrape and also pursue legal
action against the copyright violations just as software companies go
after piracy.

> then the guide data would still be free like it was before, and
No, SD would be gone and the only way we could get our data in is through OCR.

> that attempts to ban discussion of screen scraping is to protect SD's
> business and not because of a serious threat.
I do not see how this ban is any different than the ban on discussion
of other types of copy write violations like p2p sharing of your
recordings.

> I'm not arguing that SD
> should go away or that we should boycott it or that a free or sponsored
> solution is better.  I'm not arguing for or against SD.  I'm only saying
> that if you choose to support it you should do so because you made an
> informed decision and not because you were conned and too dumb to realize
> it, and that open discussion on the list shouldn't be censored to protect
> SD's business.
>
Reading the same exact material that you point out I still completely
disagree at this conclusion and I am no dev, TMS supporter...

John