[cc-community] question about liscensing and netscraping.

jonathon jonathon.blake at gmail.com
Sat Aug 4 17:25:34 EDT 2007


Laura wrote:

> a spider is coming and harvesting our wiki, and it is slamming
> our site so hard that people cannot download the software
> packages we need.

Add "No Robots"  tagging to the site, modified to allow Google and
Yahoo to spider the site. [Both on the individual pages, and for the
site as a whole.  Some spiders read only the notice on the page.
Others read only the notice for the website.  Some read both.  Some
honor neither.]

> We want to allow people to mirror python.org, and

I don't see anything on the page about spidering, or mirroring the
website.  Add a notice to the stating under what conditions the site
can be mirrored, either in part, or in whole.

> i.e. now that we have done it we think we would like a more
> restrictive license, but one that doesn't harm the people who

Assuming that the site is hosted in the US, unless otherwise
specified, content is under copyright with "All Rights Reserved".
[This is true for most other countries.]

The only thing that would be more restricted is a "Your Rights Removed" EULA.
Only one Creative Commons License might fit that criteria:
* Creative Commons BY-NC-ND

> make it possible for us to threaten those who use our wiki in ways we
> do not want with a lawsuit?

When you find an infringing website:
* Archive a copy of the infringing website.   [IIRC, the python tool
that does that automatically adds a tag stating the date and time the
page was retrieved];
* Create PDFs of every page on the infringing website.  [IIRC, the
python tool that does that also adds the current date and time, as it
spiders the site.]

Once the above is done, file a DMCA take Down Notice with the ISP that
hosts the material.  Then submit a cease and desist letter to the
organization that created the website, the organization that "owns"
the website, and the organization that maintains the website.

If they ignore it, then file a copyright suit and collect statutory
damages from each of those organizations, under "contributing
infringement".

If the infringing website hosts any material with a CC-NC license,
then the copyright owner of that item can file a breech of license
suit against the owner of the website.

If the infringing website is not hosted in the US, then there isn't
much you can do. In roughly a dozen countries, copyright infringement
is almost as serious as jaywalking.

> read and explain to me.

I am not a lawyer.  You need to consult with an attorney that
specializes in International Intellectual Property Rights Law.

xan

jonathon


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