Legal Question in Technology Law in Minnesota

Search for a restaurant on google maps and you will get ratings and reviews that have been compiled from a number of 3rd party websites.

Another similar example is metacritic - where they take reviews on music/movies etc. and combine it to form a meta-rating.

I'm wondering if I could run into any legal trouble for adding a feature similar to this to my website (for businesses in the niche market I'm involved in). I'd basically be crawling various websites that contain ratings and reviews and providing a combined rating (possibly review snippets also?). Are there any specific laws about what I can and can't collect and republish?


Asked on 2/01/11, 2:13 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Ross Brandborg Brudvik Law Office

If you are taking information that could be considered copyrighted. Most web sites own the content of the site. However if you present the information in your own format and credit where the information comes from, you likely would be ok.

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Answered on 2/02/11, 6:01 pm


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