[mythtv-users] IMDB Screen Scrap... legal?

[Nick]

On 7/8/05, Mark Gardner <markgard at gmail.com> wrote:
> <SNIP>
> > explicitly forbidden. Only small subsets of filmographies are allowed to be
> > quoted, and only on non-commercial websites. The latter restrictions on the
> > use of data may be unenforceable, as the U.S. Supreme Court in Feist v.
> > Rural ruled that collections of facts are not protected by copyright."
> >
> >  With that being said... i can say anything to scare you but that doesn't
> > mean i can take it to court and win.
> 
> Ok great.... there is a possible legal loophole that Myth would fit
> into.  But as a community project i feel we have a greater
> responsibility.  If a site askes not to be screen scraped, whe should
> comply with their wishes. Especialy when there is another alternative
> that is free, and completely legal.

IANAL - I don't think that scraping would be covered under that ruling
due to the definition of a 'collection of facts'. I agree that if a
site states that certain uses of its data are forbidden then it should
be respected, especially as the data concerned is the property of the
site. It is however quite hard to regulate access to a busy site if
data is coming from a 'normal' request and being used
non-commercially. This seems to be a situation similar to the
gathering of TV listings e.g Tribune, and whereby a pay service would
allow the content to be licensed for a particular use.

There is however the possibility to have the imdb data local
(ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/misc/movies/database/tools/movie-database-faq)
which _may_ offer a compromise (no scraping, but additional overhead).

Nick