[mythtv-users] MythTV and BitTorrent?

[R. G. Newbury]

Dean Collins wrote:
> Oh Geoff blow it out your butt.

OK I can do that. I *am* an old fart!  Would you like fries with that?

> Show me a bit torrent client developer who has been sued??

Well Napster jumps to mind, although technically napster wasn't really a 
'bit torrent client' developer. Although it may have been. I don't know. 
But close enough when nukes are being used.
Napster, IIRC was sued both as the developer AND the facilitator of the 
illegal downloading. It didn't host the files, it hosted lists of 
file-holders who could be connected to, to download.
And didn't Napster end up bankrupt?
A large part of that case revolved around the facilitation issue 
together with the software to make use of the information. The next step 
of course was peer to peer: no central database. Recently a Federal 
judge in the northeast held that 'making available' a copyrighted file 
is not itself 'copying'. The RIAA will likely appeal that.

> Not someone who was sued as a suspected downloader.

> Isaac is the reason why Myth-TV development hasn't been as successful as
> say something like Asterisk.

Wow! Now Isaac is supposed to worry about how successful mythtv is?
Asterisk is 'successful' because Digium, among others, sell hardware 
that uses Asterisk. If the software works they sell more hardware. 
Although based on open source software, the marketing methodology is to 
sell hardware. Their best selling point is the outrageous fees charged 
by the telcos.

And how, exactly, does it worry you, that myth is not as successful as 
you would like? And what are you doing to change that?

Isaac and the other devs DO NOT WANT TO BE SUED. Like Grisham's law in 
email lists/comments, (I won't use the 'H' word), getting sued is a sort 
of badge of 'you lose' (as well as a badge of 'your are big enough to 
bother someone').

It does not matter if you are in the right. Just ask Novell or IBM or 
Red Hat or Autozone or Daimler-Chrysler about their "win" in being sued 
by SCO. Even if you win in the end (like Novell appears to have done 
(and 'appears' is operative), you still lose. Novell has probably spent 
more than the $2.5M of the judgment in fighting the action and may not 
recover that judgment.

The devs don't give a flying fcuk if anyone wants to go off and build a 
plugin which does what you want. It just will never be an 'official' 
myth plugin. Get over it. If they don't like grits, all of your whining 
and snivelling will not change their minds.

So I will reply in the same civil, nuanced and subtle manner as your 
response. Blow it out yours!

Geoff