[mythtv-users] Mooting architecture for a DataDirect replacement

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Tue, Jun 26, 2007 at 05:07:59AM -0400, Dan Ritter wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 25, 2007 at 05:03:30PM -0400, Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
> > There are two separate issues of legality involved here:
> > 
> > a) does the station own a copyright in the bare scheduling data (almost
> > certainly no: Feist v Rural, but I don't know if there's any caselaw on
> > this topic; anyone got a Versuslaw subscription?)
> 
> Not me, but several people on Groklaw do.

Excellent point.  And come to that, I actually know someone who's a
paralegal.  I still wanna know where Brad Templeton is, though.  :-)

> > b) can the station legally restrict you from crawling their site in
> > that fashion, to acquire the data.  Courts are, IME, all over the map
> > on whether web site operators are legally *permitted* to restrict how
> > people can access non-technically-restricted pages in light of the fact
> > that technical restrictions are 1) possible, 2) easy and 3) free.  My
> > moral opinion is if you want it restricted, restrict it.
> 
> If you were damaging them through deliberate DOS, perhaps.
> Otherwise... they make the information freely available.

Well, this is my impression, but the law is an ass.

Cheers
-- jra
-- 
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