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Aggregation Service Legalities

by volcomgeyser
1 replies
I read this case study about the legalities of aggregating news online..sites like techmeme, tweetmeme, or even google news are basically all legal under fair use laws. But what I am wondering is if you guys think those same laws apply when aggregating user generated content (ie forums, social networks, etc).

Do you think the same logic and reasoning for acceptable/fair use be applied to something like affbuzz? While some of the aggregation is of news sources, others are from forums and was thinking that its got to be against the forums TOS to duplicate their content (even the headline)

I am thinking of creating a website that involves aggregating user generated content and worried about the legalities. Thanks!
#aggregation #legalities #service
  • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
    That is a good article. What you should take away from it are:

    - If you are worried about the legalities of your aggregation service, don't start the service. The law is unsettled, but very, very expensive to litigate.

    - Read the cases referenced in the article carefully. You will see lots of settlements and licensing agreements - all of which require the aggregators to pay money and/or remove content. Except for search engines, you are generally not seeing cases won by content aggregators.

    - Keep in mind the plaintiff's lawsuit will have a dozen or more legal theories they are going after you with. The plaintiff only needs to win 1. You need a clean sweep of everything. Having a .900 batting average could still wipe you out (if the attorney's have not already eliminated your bank account).
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