Only need episode numbers, titles, descriptions

[szsori]

I run the free (beer and speech) website TheTVDB.com, which is used by plugins for Xbox Media Center, Meedio (soon MeediOS), Media Portal, and 10-15 other smaller projects. We provide TV show information in XML format (note: new XML format is being worked on) and user-created images that people can use in their HTPC apps. An important note: we do not provide ongoing TV listings... just the series/episode info including the FirstAired date for each episode.

I've been trying to figure out a way to load in new show information without having to scrape TV.com or similar websites, since that's a pain technically and legally. As a result, I have a few questions about XMLTV.

1. Would the TOS allow me to parse series titles, episode titles, episode descriptions, and original episode date from the listings, store it in my database, and redistribute using our XML interfaces?
2. How can I differentiate between regular on-going TV series and one-off events like sports, tv movies, awards shows, etc?
3. How can I differentiate between local series (like a local realty show or news program) and national series? Would selecting a satellite provider for my listings do this?

Thanks in advance for any information you folks can provide. With the fall seasons starting, I'm looking forward to getting something running as soon as possible.

[danielk]

Would the TOS allow me to parse series titles, episode titles, episode descriptions, and original episode date from the listings, store it in my database, and redistribute using our XML interfaces?

No, that would count as republishing. You are better off accepting user submissions and screen scraping where the terms of service allow it.

Because you offer limited data to your users you may be able to negotiate a discount when licensing the data, but would you still would need to have some revenue model to support it.