Seems not very legal...

I am sure this is illegal in Europe. There are strict rules for how much one can use from another website (limited number of words plus max size one image).

Google News complies to these rules (without adding its own ads) and still many publishers are battling it... Google News has stopped in Spain last week because it has to pay the publishers starting Jan 1st.

Excerpt of Terms of Service of nytimes.com (just as an example, every publisher has something similar):

2.2 The Services and Contents are protected by copyright pursuant to U.S. and international copyright laws. You may not modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, reproduce (except as provided in Section 2.3 of these Terms of Service), create new works from, distribute, perform, display, or in any way exploit, any of the Content or the Services (including software) in whole or in part.

2.3 You may download or copy the Content and other downloadable items displayed on the Services for personal use only, provided that you maintain all copyright and other notices contained therein. Copying or storing of any Content for other than personal use is expressly prohibited without prior written permission from The New York Times Rights and Permissions Department, or the copyright holder identified in the copyright notice contained in the Content.

Thank you for the direction. I'll go into more detail about it immediately.

Hi,

I just launched an online service called Scroll.

  * Scroll can turn news website into a clean HTML view.
  * You don't have to share a URL with fullscreen ads anymore. You can share the readable article URL by Scroll.
  * You can search articles. Every link is clutter-free just before you read. Your battery will thank you.
  * It's mobile optimized.
  * No Sign Up required.

I would love any and all feedback. Be harsh, be helpful. I really appreciate any help you can provide.

I clicked on random link ( https://getscroll.com/r/vl25i ), got this http://i.imgur.com/PwpUs0y.jpg (notice formatting)

Thanks. I'll take a look. Would you please tell me what web browser are you using? eg. Chrome, IE, or firefox ?

fixed this problem in Firefox. Thanks.

Legalities?

Honestly, I don't know yet. Since there are already some pioneer like Instapaper and Readability. I believe everything will be fine.

( Am I ? )

I'm not a lawyer, but unless the publisher agree, you're probably not fine. IIRC, Instapaper and readability run on the client. They don't reproduce the complete article on the server.

I'd also argue that you're in a morally murky area. Call me old-fashioned (and give me one while you're at it), but I respect these journalists and the people that pay them.

What about the Amazons "Send to Kindle" service?

I think I am a dead man now.

I'll try to understand the legal issue.

I will also try to find some journalists and start learning how to respect their job.

Thanks for reminding me.

Firstly, copying the articles and displaying them is very likely to be illegal, although some websites do release their content under Creative Commons or similar licenses.

And secondly, there's two design things that bug me: 1. The title links on the front page are tiny (Chrome 39, Windows 7, 12 inch laptop screen), and are very hard to read. 2. Why is the design of the article pages so different to that of the front page? The brown background and serif font makes it look very 1998. Keep the design consistent if possible.

I love it. What I'm about to say will not likely win me any popularity contests here, but I would love to see this constantly copying all articles from the most trafficked 10k news outlets. Then we can read and comment on what comes out of the media without putting up with garbage like taboola. Run it as a hidden service. Or just post your code and let someone else do it. There is no way you will be able to run this as a business, for reasons other commenters have discussed.

Tried this article as a test, only got a portion of it:

http://us.cnn.com/2014/12/27/world/asia/north-korea-the-inte...

Thanks for the feedback. I Just figure out a possible reason and will fix soon.

Problem solved. Thanks for your feedback.

Wow ! what an amazing app.

You should make it into a chrome/firefox plugin which allows me to keep a blacklist of sites that will be redirected from your site whenever I go to them. ( like the economist,bbc,forbes,vice,atlantic,etc )

Again, great work !

Thank you for the great suggestion. Blacklist is a good idea. And we can even build a new BBC homepage which 'optimized' for reader.

I also think you're going to run into legal issues with this. Certainly can't just copy/paste whole articles on your server like that. Good luck with everything.

thanks. I should researching any possible legal issue before I start building a public product.

Font size is looking pretty small on landing page. Chrome / Windows

great work, very clean

I'm glad that you like my early stage product.