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Public Listings and Copyrights

by LarryC
3 replies
There are certain business models that involve creating online guides, whether for online or offline businesses and then attempting to sell something (a website, domain name, advertising space) to businesses on the list. What I'm wondering is, if I want to compile such a list, is it legal to simply copy and paste listings that have been published by Google or some online yellow pages type site? On the one hand, this is public information, but in some cases there is content specific to that site, such as reviews (which may have stars for certain businesses based on customers' ratings) or advertising copy. I would think that simply publishing a list of business names and contact info would be ok, but including any additional material that I found on another site could be a copyright violation. Does anyone know or have an opinion about this?
#copyrights #listings #public
  • Profile picture of the author KirkMcD
    Just because it is available to the public, doesn't make it Public Information and free to use. The lists are copyrighted and sometimes contain fake profiles to find people who copied it.
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  • Profile picture of the author JMB Marketing Group
    Originally Posted by LarryC View Post

    There are certain business models that involve creating online guides, whether for online or offline businesses and then attempting to sell something (a website, domain name, advertising space) to businesses on the list. What I'm wondering is, if I want to compile such a list, is it legal to simply copy and paste listings that have been published by Google or some online yellow pages type site? On the one hand, this is public information, but in some cases there is content specific to that site, such as reviews (which may have stars for certain businesses based on customers' ratings) or advertising copy. I would think that simply publishing a list of business names and contact info would be ok, but including any additional material that I found on another site could be a copyright violation. Does anyone know or have an opinion about this?
    Larry,

    Great question. The answer to your question is ABSOLUTELY, YES YOU CAN cull, publish and sell the list of business names, but not any of their additional material.

    Here's some information I found regarding this exact issue:

    Copyright Circular 32 says in part:

    “Copyright does not extend to names, titles, and short phrases or clauses
    such as column headings or simple checklists. The format, arrangement,
    or typography of a work is not protected.

    Furthermore, copyright protection does not extend to works consisting entirely of information that is common property containing no original authorship, for example: standard calendars, height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers, schedules of sporting events, and lists or tables taken from public documents or other common sources.”

    What that means for you is that you can sell lists of information (such as mailing lists) and not have to worry about copyright issues!


    Hope this helped.

    JMB
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  • Profile picture of the author LarryC
    JMB, it looks like you found the exact answer to that, thanks! That is sort of what I expected, since that is, after all, public information. Trouble could come from copying something beyond that, such as a slogan or logo next to the business name, but I am really only interested in basic listings. Actually, this is not even something I've done, I just wanted to know if it was permissible in case I want to try it.
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