Protecting a list of URLs

[Edwin]

I've built up a site with over 600 links that I have researched and reviewed. It took a LONG time, but it's created a unique collection of links that is deeper and more comprehensive than anything else out there.

Now somebody is publicly stating on a discussion forum his intent to go through the site and copy off all the URLs he doesn't yet have on his own directory. Not the descriptions, just the URLs. However, that represents hundreds of hours of work of research on my part in terms of the effort I put in tracking them down from the search engines etc.

What can I do? Is the law on my side?

 

[Theo]

Short answer: "no".

 

[furca]

Now somebody is publicly stating on a discussion forum his intent to go through the site and copy off all the URLs he doesn't yet have on his own directory.

Put up a password protection on your directory and demand payment!

 

[draqon]

speak to Dwayne at Exody. im sure he knows something about data compilation laws.

 

[TrafficNames]

no way you can do anything about it

 

[octobus]

I guess the only way is not showing the URLs in public...

 

[jdk]

If anything make each url an image of the url so if he was to steal them he would have to spend hours himself typing in each domain.

 

[Edwin]

The URLs aren't even displayed, each link is a redirect to the target site. But from this guy's postings, it's pretty clear he's willing to follow each redirect if necessary and cut and paste the result to replicate the link database.

 

[jdk]

I doubt there is much you can do. Couldn't you compare it to a search engine? It takes its time to go out and look for resources and when someone searches they see the list of results. If you then put a few links on a site and say it is a collection you came up with be the same as the search engine?

I don't know the legaleze behind it, I am just trying to compare the two.

 

[Domagon]

Create some sites that are relevant to others in the list and add mix them in - that way when they copy your list, you'll get some traffic too

Ron

 

[Edwin]

Here is material that I thought supported my case for protection...

http://www.cni.org/Hforums/cni-copyright/1999-02/0304.html
http://uaweb.arizona.edu/council/copyright.shtml
http://www.bitlaw.com/copyright/database.html
http://www.wheatonma.edu/Library/Info/Copyright.html
http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/wp/copyright-2002/webpagesfaqs.html
http://art.ntu.ac.uk/liveart/issues/Chapter8.htm
http://my.simmons.edu/services/technology/policies/copyright.shtml
http://www.evolt.org/article/Copyright_Law_and_You/20/15208/

If you're interested in seeing the original thread, it's at http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=17999 [I am the owner of the site in the first post, but it was completely unsolicited and I didn't even know about the forum it was posted on until the guy later in the thread started causing problems.]

Would be great to get somebody with legal experience to weigh in, but perhaps that's too hopeful...

 

[namestrands]

nothing you can do.. however may I suggest you add a little code to your site to stop rippers

 

[DaddyHalbucks]

It sounds like a possible copyright violation.

Did you get a lawyer's opinion?

 

[Dave Zan]

I don't know the legaleze behind it, I am just trying to compare the two.

One problem with trying to seek legal advice on this problem is if both parties
are in different parts of the globe.

 

[namedropper]

Facts and data themselves are not copyrightable. Creative expressions of facts and data are. That expression can be either in words or in the organization of a database (or other ways not relevant to this discussion, like artwork and so forth).

So if he takes your descriptions, it's very likely an infringement on your copyright (assuming there's an even basic level of creativity involved in your descriptions).

If he takes your organization (assuming it's in some creative way and not simply obvious and functional, such as alphabetical order) then he's violating your copyright on the creative organization of the data.

If he just takes the data and organizes it his own way and doesn't take your descriptions, you do not have any grounds to complain legally.