[mythtv-users] Mythtv torrent downloading

[Chris Petersen]

> 1. ReplayTV was sued because they included commercial skipping 
> technology in their DVR, and they lost big time.  MythTV skips 
> commercials....

MythTV hasn't been sued, and didn't ReplayTV settle?  That's not a loss,
it's "cutting your losses."

> 2. In the US, the DMCA says you can't bypass copy protection in order
> to make a backup copy of digital media, yet Myth rips commercially
> produced copy protected DVDs...

MythTV does no such thing.  You the user have to download and install
the separate DeCSS package.  Those who live in countries without stupid
laws like the DMCA are legally allowed to install/use DeCSS, so the code
hooks are provided for them.  MythTV is not an american-only project.

Same goes for mp3/aac encoding -- it's totally legal to distribute
source code that does the encoding.  Source code is not an encoder and
does not violate licenses.  MythTV is more liable for linking to
GPL-violating code (mp3 is patent-encumbered and not compatible with the
GPL) than for what people compile the sourcecode into (you'll notice
that faac/faad do not distribute binary downloads, nor does mythtv.org).

> The argument that Myth should stay away from things like bittorrent 
> because of it's legal questionableness (is that a word??) is pretty
> lame when Myth already does lots of things that could fall under the
> illegal category!!

Here's the deal, and I hate to reiterate what others have said, but
people just don't seem to understand.  Isaac is in charge of MythTV, he
is in charge of this mailing list.  He does not want people talking
about bittorrent (and the unofficial mythtv plugin that supports it),
nor will he ever include it as part of MythTV.  For whatever reason,
legal or otherwise, he is within his rights to do so.  If you don't like
it, you're more than within your rights to fork the project or write an
unauthorized plugin.

> Isn't that what open source is about?? Beating the man and doing
> things the way we, the consumer, want them done????

Not in my world.  It's about writing better software and distributing it 
for free.  "Beating the man" is nowhere in my definition of OSS -- in 
fact, "the man" is often quite in favor of open source software (ibm, 
nsa, chinese government, etc, etc.).

Please kill this discussion now before people start getting kicked off
the list.  It's just not a topic worth arguing about.

-Chris