[ATrpms-devel] CommFlag

[Jeff Voight]

I read with interest that Mythtv had been accepted to Google's Summer of 
Code.

However, I have a legal issue.

See, commercial skipping could be seen as stealing content from the 
providers that put this programming into your home. They pay for it with 
those commercials.

Now, when it was just 'developers,' the TV industry would have nobody to 
sue unless they went after each end-user of mythtv.  But, tack on 
Google's name?  Now there's a multi-million dollar company that stands 
to lose a lawsuit if it can be found to have paid for the commercial 
skip technology to be put into users' homes.

But, Google could take a different approach.  They could pay for the 
development of new technology, but considering the legal issue, could 
opt to not enable the technology by default.  This 'alpha' code *could* 
be enabled by a committed end-user if only the end-user knew where to 
look.  Where to look wouldn't be terribly difficult for a third-party to 
disclose without implicating Google.

/not a lawyer