[mythtv] Obtaining TV Listing Data and also Gist.com Closing

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Thu, Apr 24, 2003 at 04:20:43PM -0700, Bruce Markey wrote:
> > Damn good thing you put that smiley there, pardner. 
> 
> <damage_control>
> I mis-understood. I though you were referring a link at
> Decisionmark that talked about working with an open source
> version of UltimateTV (I'd already seen the messages at
> TitanTV).
> 
> UltimateTV has never taken off and has been subject to
> re-org so it's conceivable that it might be spun off. I
> would have been very interested if that was the case.
> 
> I see this as a possibility for ReplayTV with SonicBlue
> in bankruptcy. At some point, if no one wants to maintain
> the ReplayTV listings service, wishful thinking is that
> they may release the source code.
> 
> Flame me if you must.
> </damage_control>

Naw; you're fine.  You were just short.  Luckily, someone who sold me a
Visor Prism on eBay last week (for $91!) which doesn't work properly is
gonna take it back, so I'm in a good mood.  :-)

> > That sounds to me like they ought to be on "our" side.
> 
> Agreed. I get the impression that TMS and/or Gemstar
> International are clearinghouses that gather and license
> the data. All the end user sources of TV listings are
> either owned by or licensed from one of the sources. They
> are all subject to terms to prevent reselling or repackaging
> the data.

DecisionMark seems, from their copy anyway, to actually be aggregating
the data directly from the sources.

> However, as long as TV listings are on the web, the thought
> police can't restrict what my personal use is after I make
> an HTTP hit (provided I'm not redistributing the data).

Theoretically, that's probably incorrect: they likely *do* have a
compilation copyright on the *entire collection* of data, and making a
copy of that is exactly what you're doing.

Course, their goal is that you grab it on-line when you need it, so
that it's fresh -- and that is a valid motivation here, if you have a
persistent connection.

> The clearinghouses can't decide to not allow web access to
> TV listings because the networks wouldn't tolerate it (and
> would probably go to someone else who would distribute their
> listings) and they would lose all the web licensees.

Indeed.  But as I say, I suspect DMark is *not* a clearinghouse, per
se.

> Therefore, I expect we'll always have data. The question is
> how convenient will it be to gather the data.

Indeed.  And who bells the cat.  :-)

Perhaps someone ought to ask the UltimateGuide people how the samba
went when they dealt with DMark...

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra at baylink.com
Member of the Technical Staff     Baylink                             RFC 2100
The Suncoast Freenet         The Things I Think
Tampa Bay, Florida        http://baylink.pitas.com             +1 727 647 1274

   "If you don't have a dream; how're you gonna have a dream come true?"
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