[thelist] Legal Advice - Linking

[Rachel Cunliffe]

Hi there,

  Can someone please point me to a good place to find out about the
following legal situation.

I am wanting to do a survey of some online information.  There are two
websites with a large set of links.  I am wanting to know if I am able
to use their set of links, go off to the sites and collect information
from each of those sites (i.e. the only information I am getting from
the sites listing the links is the URLs).  Do I need to get permission
from the people who host the sites with the links if I want to publish
my results?  Will I get in trouble legally?

I have asked both and reluctantly one agreed and the other one has said
no, because the two sites have have issues with each other in the past
and haven't gotten over it and wants it to be exclusively to their site.


I want to use both, as between them, they are a pretty good source of
links.

*No* URLs will be published.

Any advice appreciated.

Rachel