Re: Re: Australian tv grabber

We have setup a site with xmltv-listings for Sweden 
(http://tv.swedb.se). The grabber tv_grab_se_swedb grabs the data from 
the site by downloading an xmlfile describing all channels and then 
downloading one file per day and channel and concatenating them. You can 
look at the data that we provide at

http://tv.swedb.se/xmltv/

Start with channels.xml.gz and you'll quickly figure out the rest.

We get our data directly from each tv station. We have agreements with 
each of the tv stations that allows us to use the data from their press 
sites. This means a lot of work for us, since each tv station provides 
the data in their own undocumented format, but it is 100% legal and the 
data is stable since they don't update the format in the same way a 
website might redo their layout. I haven't been in contact with the tv 
stations myself, but we have gotten agreements with all stations that we 
have contacted so far, so it seems that they are fairly positive once 
they understand what we are doing. We are also doing this completely 
non-profit which might help. The data that we receive from the press 
sites vary in quality and how much data that they provide, but we will 
be able to extract episode information categorizations from at least 
some of them.

If you want to use the same format as we do, we can cooperate on the 
grabber side. tv_grab_se_swedb is already feature complete, but I plan 
to make a grabber in some other language as well (C# probably) to 
provide better support for Windows users.

/Mattias

Elliot Shepherd wrote:

> Distribution rights? Short answer : no.
>
> If it the site i am grabbing from says it is a "Community Service" and no 
> copyright message is given anywhere on the site.
>
> From your point of view though, you would only be providing a script that 
> downloads from my server. There can't be any legal problems with that can 
> there?
>
> Elliot
>
> "Robert Eden" <rmeden@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message 
> news:20041127053337.23080.qmail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>  
>
> > This is the right place.
> >
> > I don't know if this is a issue Down Under or not, but do you have the
> > legal right to redistribute the data?
> >
> > Most of the commerical web sites allow access for personal use with the
> > restriction of not redistributing it.  That's a major reason why the
> > XMLTV project distributes grabbers, not data.
> >
> > If you do have distribution rights, someone with an interest (i.e.
> > "itch to scratch") could write  a grabber and I don't see a problem
> > with including it in the XMLTV distribution.
> >
> > Robert
> >
> > --- Elliot Shepherd <elliot-xmltv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> >    
> >
> > > Hi all.  =)
> > >
> > > Apologies in advance for this post if it is in the wrong area.
> > >
> > > I am developing a site which grabs tv listings for about 40 regions
> > > in
> > > australia and spits it out xmltv format. It already works in fact, i
> > > am just
> > > trying to make it a bit more bulletproof.
> > >
> > > I just wanted to know once it's online for everyone, if a simple
> > > plugin for
> > > xmltv can be made to just grab the data  from my server.
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > > Elliot
> > >
> > >      




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