We have developed 10 channels for the Roku. We enjoy making these channels available to the Roku community and would like to be able to continue to develop more, but the development is time consuming.
We think these types of devices are going to change the way we watch television!
We are also really busy with stuff that pays so we thought we’d try the donation method…
[Edit: Follow the redirect back to the channel code after you make your PayPal payment to display the code.]
Donate any amount via PayPal (pay what you think it’s worth, don’t be so cheap and we will send you the “Private Beta Channel” code for the channel you donated to. You can immediately install the channel by visiting https://owner.roku.com/account/channelcode and putting the code in. Tell your friends! If we can get to the $$ goal on our channels, we’ll be able to devote lots of time to creating new and interesting channels for your box.
I didn’t know what was fair or what was cheap, but I donated a $1 each for 9 of the 10 channels. 6 of which I already had the code for and 1 of which I probably won’t ever use. So I hope my $9 helps even a little bit.
“TexGuy” wrote:
I sent 3 donations but a little lost on what amounts are expected. But we all know his channels rock big time.
Edited to add 3rd donation
Thanks TexGuy!
The suggested amount for donation is “Whatever you want to give”. We’ve had some people do $10 per channel and some do much less. Donate what you think it’s worth.
Here is the list of channels.
Archive Classic Movies - Feature length Film Noir from the 30’s-60’s
Drive-In Classics - Feature length Films for the Drive in area. “Night of the living dead” and “Last man on earth” are two examples.
Earth-Touch HD - HD Nature programming.
HubbleCast HD - HD programming from the Hubble telescope team. LDS.org - Obvious
NBC News - Daily : Nightly News, Countdown, Rachel Maddow and Meet the press.
TED Talks - Amazing topics and people in HD
TERRA - Nature programming.
The Internet Archive - Moving pictures from Archive.org
“supersecretusername” wrote:
See the list of channels here: http://bit.ly/9Nxweu
We have developed 10 channels for the Roku. We enjoy making these channels available to the Roku community and would like to be able to continue to develop more, but the development is time consuming.
We think these types of devices are going to change the way we watch television!
We are also really busy with stuff that pays so we thought we’d try the donation method…
[Edit: Follow the redirect back to the channel code after you make your PayPal payment to display the code.]
Donate any amount via PayPal (pay what you think it’s worth, don’t be so cheap and we will send you the “Private Beta Channel” code for the channel you donated to. You can immediately install the channel by visiting https://owner.roku.com/account/channelcode and putting the code in. Tell your friends! If we can get to the $$ goal on our channels, we’ll be able to devote lots of time to creating new and interesting channels for your box.
When we reach our goal, we will start the publishing process to be available on every Roku.
I attempted to make a payment via my debit mastercard through paypal and had no luck. I will attempt a prepaid card to see if I can make a donation that way.
Just curious, it took forever to get the Big10 Network on DirectTV. Two questions, #1, are you having to pay the Big10 conference any rights fees? and #2, are they even aware that their channel is being distributed? Reason I ask is that I’d love to see the ACC content on line, but given your goal of $5000 per channel, I was making an assumption that that was only covering development time.
“dnelms” wrote:
Just curious, it took forever to get the Big10 Network on DirectTV. Two questions, #1, are you having to pay the Big10 conference any rights fees? and #2, are they even aware that their channel is being distributed? Reason I ask is that I’d love to see the ACC content on line, but given your goal of $5000 per channel, I was making an assumption that that was only covering development time.
He’s just grabbing their podcast feed. They are already publicly distributing this content.
“dnelms” wrote:
Just curious, it took forever to get the Big10 Network on DirectTV. Two questions, #1, are you having to pay the Big10 conference any rights fees? and #2, are they even aware that their channel is being distributed? Reason I ask is that I’d love to see the ACC content on line, but given your goal of $5000 per channel, I was making an assumption that that was only covering development time.
Can’t answer for the developer but it seems that this channel isn’t really the Big Ten Network, it’s only podcasts that they have released for RSS feeds. The new channels that have been put out there are just using the Roku box as an RSS video and audio podcast reader. The donations are offsetting the cost of developing a custom container for whatever video podcasts are being distributed but they really don’t guarantee that those channels will be able to continue to deliver that content. So, if Big Ten or CNN or whoever changes their podcast format, I’d be disappointed but not looking for a refund. It seems like most paid bloggers and other aggregators have been working off this model, set up a set of links to other content and sell advertising space to the page.
“dnelms” wrote:
Just curious, it took forever to get the Big10 Network on DirectTV. Two questions, #1, are you having to pay the Big10 conference any rights fees? and #2, are they even aware that their channel is being distributed? Reason I ask is that I’d love to see the ACC content on line, but given your goal of $5000 per channel, I was making an assumption that that was only covering development time.
He’s just grabbing their podcast feed. They are already publicly distributing this content.
Even though the podcast feed is public does that give anyone the right to then redistribute that content?
It might be okay for personal use but to redistribute without the owners’ consent?!
If you were to collect donations to cover development costs for redistributing unlicensed or content not formally allowed to redistribute, does that then fall into a murky area?
You could technically say the guy selling DVDs in the road is only collecting donations for his hard work, but will the content creators or owners see it like that?
“dnelms” wrote:
Just curious, it took forever to get the Big10 Network on DirectTV. Two questions, #1, are you having to pay the Big10 conference any rights fees? and #2, are they even aware that their channel is being distributed? Reason I ask is that I’d love to see the ACC content on line, but given your goal of $5000 per channel, I was making an assumption that that was only covering development time.
He’s just grabbing their podcast feed. They are already publicly distributing this content.
Even though the podcast feed is public does that give anyone the right to then redistribute that content?
It might be okay for personal use but to redistribute without the owners’ consent?!
If you were to collect donations to cover development costs for redistributing unlicensed or content not formally allowed to redistribute, does that then fall into a murky area?
You could technically say the guy selling DVDs in the road is only collecting donations for his hard work, but will the content creators or owners see it like that?
He’s not redistributing it though. He’s linking to their public feed which directs to their public files. Would Mozilla be in trouble for taking donations which gives you access to copyrighted content? He’s not accessing the content any differently (really) than any Podcast reader would. Are you saying a podcast reader can’t charge for their software or service?
If the guy is selling legit DVDs, he can certainly take a donation. If he is illegally copying it, then no-- but he also can’t be giving it away for free either. There has been no copying here.
“campbellwang” wrote:
Kenny I am posing questions. Why would you suggest that I wouldn’t want a fellow developer to earn money from their hard work?
I think a podcast reader would come under personal use.
Any companys’ name, logos or images are copyrghted. You always need permission. This is what dnelms eluded to.
But isn’t the Roku channel he created essentially a Podcast reader? Doesn’t a Podcast reader also pull in the pictures and text from the xml files? I know iTunes does and Mediafly do.
I’m certainly no legal expert. Perhaps he can get in trouble, but it seems to me that if he’s simply linking to content on their website, he’d be fine. Maybe I’m wrong.
With iTunes you can add your own feeds. Apple has no control over what you add for yourself.
The podcasts you see on iTunes have been submitted by the content owners. Apple then verifys the content is suitable and then allows thier content onto iTunes.
I will say MerdiaFly EDIT:might have some dubious content.
When we were researching for our channel one company said, “we do not allow anyone to syndicate our RSS feeds”, yet still I found that company’s’ RSS feeds on Mediafly.
and we will send you the “Private Beta Channel” code for the channel you donated to. You can immediately install the channel by visiting https://owner.roku.com/account/channelcode and putting the code in. Tell your friends! If we can get to the $$ goal on our channels, we’ll be able to devote lots of time to creating new and interesting channels for your box.
