[mythtv-users] Data Direct Subscription Expires?

[Brad Templeton]

The last message was too much one of those included text point-by-points
that nobody reads, so I will write without including text.

I am not saying there are no motivations for TMS to give it away
free, and indeed halting scraping is a good one we've already discussed.

However, it still concerns me.  We all know how much effort we have
put into these boxes, and they need the listings to run the way we
want them.   I am happy to take the listings for free, of course, but
would feel the most comfortable about the effort I have taken if
I could be sure it would continue, which I'm not with a free offer
renewed every 3 months.

I might actually be happier if they gave it to me for $10/year without
the survey.   Then I would know it was going to be reliable for at
least a year, and most probably forever subject to minor price fluctations.

(Side note:  You're misusing the concept of FUD.  FUD refers to a _vendor_
in a marketplace trying to raise concerns about their competitors, usually
through the use of vapour.  It does not refer to the _customers_ asking
questions about the uncertainties.   If Gemstar were to be pushing
threads about wondering how long TMS would give away data, that would be
FUD.)

3 month registration is almost unique among the free web services that
require registration out there.   How many other sites can you name
that have their users re-fill out the demographic data that frequently
to keep an account? 

But for now I am happy to accept what they say about their motivation.
But at the same time we must be concerned when they are willing to
use phrases like:

    "If you purchased a hardware or software product that receives its
    television listings from Zap2it Labs' DataDirect or, indirectly,
    through XMLTV, you may be violating our contract. It is critical that
    you and your vendor abide by our contractual terms, lest *everyone*
    suffer the consequences."

I have emphasized the word.  What they are saying is not really any
surprise or different from what I have been concerned about here.  It's
clear that they feel that should there be problems, they will not just
consider, but already have threatened to pull the service.

And that shouldn't surprise us.  They are doing it free, and that
means they can stop at any time they view it to be a problem.  So
can any open source developer stop coding (though the FOSS licences
stop them from revoking code from the FOSS arena for others to take
on the load.)