Re:AggData: Datasets created from scraping the web
by evgen on Thursday September 24, 2009 @11:52AM
(#841422)
The facts themselves are not subject to copyright, although if some business decides it does not like how its TOS is being violated it would probably stuff a few "fake" entries in there that would be returned to IPs that trigger a spider warning and then later go back and see if they were put into the db; if so you go after aggdata for violating a copyright on the collection as a whole. The data being provided by the businesses that are being scraped is not much different than that provided by a map service provider or phone book provider -- the individual facts are not subject to copyright, but the collection as a whole is and if aggdata is basically doing the web equivalent of photocopying a phone book and selling it to you then they are open to attacks from this vector.
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Re:AggData: Datasets created from scraping the web
by cschneid on Thursday September 24, 2009 @11:59AM
(#841437)
"The collection as a whole" isn't necessarily copyrightable as far as I know (not that I'm anywhere near a lawyer...). I think curated collections (say, of short stories) are copyrightable since it requires artistic decisions to be made, but a website like McDonalds that has a big list of locations is just a statement of fact, with no artistic basis.
Maps have artwork that is protected, and phone books have page layout, font choice, etc. I don't think that textual addresses of a set of facts would be protected, but I think that it's a gray area of law that hasn't been decided.
Re:AggData: Datasets created from scraping the web
by evgen on Thursday September 24, 2009 @12:42PM
(#841532)
It is not just the "artwork" of a map that is protected, or else you would see people turning online map databases into collections of lines and points. The entire collection, as a whole, can be subject to a compilation copyright. This is why mapmakers put in little bits of fake data, so that if their fake data turns up in your map they can nail you for copyright infringement.