Matt Grommes wrote:
Wow. So is MythTV going to roll back any features that the industry thinks are illegal? No more fast-forwarding through commercials? What about introducing DRM? Is Myth going to obey the 'Delete 6 Feet Under after 2 weeks' flag HBO put in? The attitude about Torrentocracy has really made me rethink Myth, honestly. The thing that finally spurred me on to build a Myth box was Tivo rolling over to the industry on commercials. I'd hate to think that MythTV is going to be less than useful to users too in an attempt at some kind of legitimacy with industry. Torrentocray has the same "association" with illegal activity as bittorrent, yes it can be used illegally but there are tons of legal uses as well, as illustrated by the default feeds it installs. The idea of an "approval" process that goes beyond the technical kind of fills me with dread in a lot of ways but it's not my project. If it's being used to keep out useful features though, that should make everyone involved a little wary. I hope Issac or another developer can make some kind of statement on this. Either way I'd like to know what the policy is going to be.
Well, considering that the project is Isaac's, his rule is law and that's about all there is to say on that. No one is discouraging Torrentocracy development or prohibiting users from using it. Just don't expect official support on the official MythTV lists for a project that Isaac chooses not to endorce for whatever reasons. The beauty of open source is that you can do what you want with the product that is developed. No one in this community can stop you from doing legal or illegal things with the software. That being said, with the hypersensitive focus on the *real* problem of copyright infringement, however you view those laws, they are the laws of this country at least and as an open source project, I can venture to guess that Isaac as its creater and maintainer and the rest of us that have contributed code, do not have the legal resources to fight off a legitimate or even frivilous lawsuit arising from the official integration of a highly scrutinized feature. Commercial skip is a good example, but there are fewer challeneges to the use of that technology than you will probably find in the area of distribution of copyrighted material that would make Isaac want to shy away from it. We can strive for freedom from restrictive technologies and laws but we also live in the real world where actions have consequences and I for one would hate to see this project die an untimely death because of poor judgement in embracing technology with dubious perceptions, however unmotivated by truth.
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