[thelist] Data Mining

[Rebecca Milot-Bradford]

> See that:
> "Copyright © 2001 Yahoo! Inc. All Rights Reserved."

Yahoo! can copyright the presentation of the data, but it is my
understanding that one cannot, under US Copyright Law, protect the data
itself. So if someone wanted to mine the data and then present it in a
different form, copyright would not prohibit that. However, the site may
explicitly forbid the mining of their data in their terms of use. I recall
reading recently that one of the domain registrars was able to block a
company from mining the addresses of new registrants using this argument.

For instance, one of the sites I work for has a terms of use document that
reads, in part, "You acknowledge and agree that [the company] owns all
database, compilation, collective and similar rights, title and interests
worldwide in our proprietary information databases, and all information and
derivative works generated from those databases." This hasn't been tested in
court, so I can't comment on its effectiveness.

Best Wishes,

Rebecca Milot-Bradford