Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

Is taking posts from websites illegal ?

  • 26-10-2015 11:47pm
    #1
    Daithi 1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,006 ✭✭✭


    For example, if someone posted an ad for something for sale on a website and I copied the ad to my website but linked to the original website, is that illegal ? Or would I be doing the website a favor by linking to them and sharing their content ?

    Thanks


Comments

  • #2
    GrayFox208
    Closed Accounts Posts: 335 ✭✭GrayFox208


    Daithi 1 wrote: »
    For example, if someone posted an ad for something for sale on a website and I copied the ad to my website but linked to the original website, is that illegal ? Or would I be doing the website a favor by linking to them and sharing their content ?

    Thanks
    No. As long as you credit the original post it's not illegal. You can't copyright a public advert. However if you took a song someone wrote and put it on your site and said you wrote it, then it's illegal.


    Why would you put someone's ad on your site anyway?


  • #3
    Manach
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,768 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manach


    Offhand, this sounds in some circumstances a bit like like screen scrapping and this was ruled a breach of copyright in a case involving Ryanair?


  • #4
    Daithi 1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,006 ✭✭✭Daithi 1


    GrayFox208 wrote: »
    No. As long as you credit the original post it's not illegal. You can't copyright a public advert. However if you took a song someone wrote and put it on your site and said you wrote it, then it's illegal.


    Why would you put someone's ad on your site anyway?

    I was just using that as an example. I don't want to do that. I was just curious.
    Thanks for your reply.

    Edit :

    Wouldn't linking to the original site be giving credit ?


  • #5
    GrayFox208
    Closed Accounts Posts: 335 ✭✭GrayFox208


    Daithi 1 wrote: »
    I was just using that as an example. I don't want to do that. I was just curious.
    Thanks for your reply.

    Edit :

    Wouldn't linking to the original site be giving credit ?

    Mhm. I'm saying if you didn't.


  • #6
    Daithi 1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,006 ✭✭✭Daithi 1


    GrayFox208 wrote: »
    Mhm. I'm saying if you didn't.

    Yeah but i explicitly said in the op "if i linked to the original site"..


  • Advertisement
  • #7
    GrayFox208
    Closed Accounts Posts: 335 ✭✭GrayFox208


    Daithi 1 wrote: »
    Yeah but i explicitly said in the op "if i linked to the original site"..

    Yes. What I said was it is not illegal to do so, however if you DIDN'T it might be.


  • #8
    Daithi 1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,006 ✭✭✭Daithi 1


    GrayFox208 wrote: »
    Yes. What I said was it is not illegal to do so, however if you DIDN'T it might be.

    letseat.ie got big from basically using menu's and pricing from already existing websites. They just centralised them all.


  • #9
    GrayFox208
    Closed Accounts Posts: 335 ✭✭GrayFox208


    Daithi 1 wrote: »
    letseat.ie got big from basically using menu's and pricing from already existing websites. They just centralised them all.

    Yeah but they could have permission from the owners or the owners could have asked to be on the site. A menu isn't copyrighted materials.


  • #10
    Daithi 1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,006 ✭✭✭Daithi 1


    GrayFox208 wrote: »
    Yeah but they could have permission from the owners or the owners could have asked to be on the site. A menu isn't copyrighted materials.

    But even without permission, they couldnt do anything about it..


  • #11
    Daithi 1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,006 ✭✭✭Daithi 1


    So, you can pretty much hold them to ransom.


  • Advertisement
  • #12
    Daithi 1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,006 ✭✭✭Daithi 1


    GrayFox208 wrote: »
    Yeah but they could have permission from the owners or the owners could have asked to be on the site. A menu isn't copyrighted materials.

    It just felt like you were giving me info on everything i didn't ask for, and all you said about the thing i did ask for, was "no"..


  • #13
    Pines
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 225 ✭✭Pines


    If the original ad text is considered to be sufficiently original (the EU standard is that the work is the author's own intellectual creation, whcih can be reflected in as few as 11 words in one case), then reproducing it without permission on your website is an infringement. If the ad is bare bones factual then there's no originality (e.g. "For sale: Raleigh mountain bike, €100 o.n.o."). However, if the author has put creativity into the ad text, it could be protected (think of Hemingway's short story in six words: "For sale: baby shoes. Never worn").

    Whether or not you credit or link to the original is immaterial in this case. If there are photos, they too may be protected by copyright and reproducing them will be an infringement, link or no link.

    Screen scraping cases are not exactly about the copyright of the content taken: the price of a flight and its time, for example, are facts not protected by copyright. What was at stake here is the content of a database. If someone puts economic investment into gathering together and creating a database, even of uncopyrightable elements, then there is a database right created under EU law, which is infringed by taking a substantial part of the database, or by repeatedly accessing and reproducing small parts at different times. So one ad whose text is not original will not infringe copyright, but reproducing lots of ads, even if they are individually factual and banal, may infringe database rights.


Advertisement