[mythtv] [mythtv-commits] Ticket #5164: Mythmovies google movies grabber
Stuart Morgan
stuart at tase.co.uk
Mon Apr 7 11:15:00 UTC 2008
On Monday 07 April 2008 11:40:21 Robin Gilks wrote:
> *I'm* using them as if I'd accessed the webpage
> with my browser for my own use.
No you are not and there is the problem for most source websites, they derive
income from people clicking on adverts or booking tickets through their site
after choosing a cinema/film. If we scape the data from pages then we bypass
their revenue making mechanisms, they pay to serve us the information without
the possibility of making any return.
You can argue whether the sites TOS makes sense, but most of the time they
prohibit the use of scrapers or any re-use of the data and we have to abide
by their rules.
As far as whether MythTV or the user is doing the scraping, I can't say
legally which is considered to be true. MythTV would be directly facilitating
the theft of copyrighted material and that brings the kind of reputation and
hassle we wish to avoid.
The question of whether it's theft at all to use this information for personal
use is pretty clear and I think copyright law around the world agrees on this
issue. You rent a DVD and copy it for personal use - theft. You borrow a book
from the library and copy the whole thing - theft. A webpage is no different
and though your browser may cache a copy for speed reasons, it is expected
that the cache is temporary and that the page remains unmodified.
--
Stuart Morgan
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