[mythtv-users] Free US/Canada Listings

[Robert Eden]

On 9/6/2007 1:58 PM, Phill Wiggin wrote:
> IIRC, Myth originally used scraped data.  From that standpoint, Myth
> was founded on these "violations". Pre DD days, screen-scraping is
> what we had.  Wasn't it just as 'illegal/immoral/unsavory' then as it
> is now?
I'll jump in here...  I don't have a copy of the Zap2IT Terms of Use 
from 5 years ago, but I don't think they prevented scraping.  XMLTV (of 
which the old Zap2IT scraper was a part of) has always removed any 
grabbers at the request of the data source, at any intentional blocking 
(we set the agent string), or if it  clearly violated the site terms of 
service.

*ALL* web sites even today do not prohibit scraping. I find the 
DirectTV.com Terms generous and seem to permit scraping for personal 
non-commercial use.

 >You may download material displayed on the Site for
 >non-commercial, personal use only, provided that you
 >also retain all copyright and other proprietary notices
 >contained on the materials. You may not, however,
 >distribute, modify, transmit, reuse, re-post, or
 >use the content of the Site for public or commercial
 >purposes, including the text, images, audio and video
 >without the permission of DIRECTV.

Of course I"m not advocating scraping when their are better alternatives 
(SD, but of course I'm biased).  A scraper can never match the speed, 
quality, or reliability you can get with the cooperation of the source.

Robert
XMLTV
Schedules Direct