"Ruling May Mean Trouble for Web Aggregators"

["Carmen" <chv@vertexdev.com>]

Not to say "I told you so", but this ruling is exactly what makes me think
that scraping does not have a long and bright future ahead of it:

http://www.internetworldnews.com/GetThisStory.cfm?Storyid=CB397DFA-2CD8-11D4
-977400A0CC40B49B

Here are some of the relevant parts:

"A federal court ruling this week has broad implications for intellectual
property online and for Web sites that aggregate Internet content. "

...

"This is a very far-reaching ruling," Carney said. "It says anybody who
comes onto your Web site cannot do so without your express permission."
Carney said the ruling doesn't forbid Bidder's Edge from culling information
from eBay, but does prohibit the use of spiders.

In issuing the injunction, Judge Whyte wrote, "Nothing in this order
precludes Bidder's Edge from utilizing information obtained from eBay's site
other than by automated query program, robot, Web crawler, or similar
device."

Carmen

Try Headline Viewer at http://www.vertexdev.com/HeadlineViewer