[mythtv-users] Commercial flagging on a sample basis

[Robert]

Mike Perkins wrote:
> Robert wrote:
>> I've noticed that most UK programs are "sponsored by <product>" and 
>> <product> always has it's advert first and last in commercial break - if 
>> someone could create a database of these ads and then a comm-flagger 
>> that used the database to detect them, I think that would be a fairly 
>> reliable method.
>>
>> If end-users could mark these ads and submit them for a particular 
>> channel / program / or everything, and others could download to use in 
>> detection, that would be pretty cool.
>>
> Take some care here. I would guess that you might end up stepping on 
> copyright-owners toes if you are talking about what I think you might be talking 
> about.
> 
> Now, copyright in the UK is possibly treated not quite as crazily as over the 
> other side, but I think there may still be sufficient question of legality in 
> what you might be suggesting that talk of it around here could cause problems.
> 
> Samples for investigating techniques, yes. Possibly collating some kind of 
> digest of each commercial, maybe. "Downloading", now that raises all kinds of 
> flags we ought not be talking about on this list, however innocently.
> 
> Mike Perkins

I don't know too much about copyright law, but if I were an advertiser, 
the more places my advert were distributed the better and I'd hardly be 
bothered to go to the extent of copyrighting my adverts either!  Sounds 
like unnecessary expense and hassle.  And with the number of shows and 
movies available to download from the internet I think the authorities 
are fairly busy trying to stop all those people to worry too much about 
a (relatively) small number of Myth users sharing a few adverts around.

Having said that, I do see your point and I did think as I wrote it, 
that I wouldn't want to be the person hosting that "advert database" on 
the internet just in case.  I like your idea of storing some kind of 
digest though - thats neat.  Each user could have their own database of 
digests, possibly associated with a program or channel.

Robert.