Legal Question in Technology Law in Illinois
compiling statistics from business web sites
I want to compile a report which tracks the mentions of specifc industries and companies from a variety of web sites, such as business magazines, ezines, newspaper sites, etc. Most sites state limitaitons, or require permission, for using information from their site for any commercial purpose, the use of search engines to find data, or create ''deriviative works''. My plan may be in a gray area, the process is:
1.Search specific sites for any mentions of an industry or a company
2.Record the presence of the mentions only, no copying of text or use of any quotes
3. Summarize the data, e.g., 10 of 50 online sources currently have mentions of General Motors electric cars.
4. Possibly provide a list of the actual article URL's
5. Or, do not tie mentions to any specific sources, just provide a general list of sources used, and reader must go to the source and do own followup search.
Question: I s permission needed to complile and report such summary statisitcs , and does this constitute a derivative product?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: compiling statistics from business web sites
This does not appear to be copyright infringement or a derivative work, but rather creation of original material, provided you make it clear to the user what you are doing. However, if you frame, pop-up, banner or otherwise add material that designates you as the source of another's material that would not be proper and might involve copyright infringement, trademark infringement or unfair competition. If you handle this database with honesty and without deception, you should be legal. I would be happy to review your product and provide legal advice, since you are not a client yet and the above is not legal advice but merely general thoughts.
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