QUESTION
Is it legal to compare prices of products online by using a screen scrape application?
Asked on Aug 09th, 2013 on Patents - Massachusetts
More details to this question:
I am a small business owner, my main income comes from buying items from wholesalers and retailers and selling them online. I recently came across an application that would "screen scrape" online prices for some retailers so I could figure out which item I wanted to purchase from those companies. I have heard many conflicting answers on the legality of using a screen scraping application. I am not distributing the information or taking any photos or description just pricing information to compare prices and purchase.
1 ANSWER
Appellate Litigation Attorney serving Boston, MA
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Banner & Witcoff, Ltd.
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Individual item price information is likely not protected by copyright. So using a screen scrape app to obtain individual prices should be allowed. Collections of prices, e.g., in a list or database, can qualify for copyright protection.
Answered on Aug 14th, 2013 at 5:04 PM