Startups Stack Exchange Archive

Is it okay to create an online directory based on other directories?

• posted by: Jack Twain on 2015-05-02
• tagged: legal, online-tool
• score: 3

I live in Germany and I would like to create an online directory for a specific category of products. There exists many online directories for this kind of products, however they suck and I want to create a better one.

To get contents for my website I’m considering crawling those ugly directories and then based on their content I’ll create a better content. Maybe sharing the same categorization of the other directories but with a better interface.

My question: Is it okay to do so? And are there some things I should avoid that can be considered illegal? Thanks!

Edit:

What I’ll be getting from crawling those websites are:

1- Only the website addresses to companies that sell those products.

I will create my own categories for the links.

Edit 2:

If I go to google to search for companies that sell shoes then I will probably end up with the same list as with directories that list companies that sell shoes, then how would anyone differentiate that I built a directory of companies that sell shoes myself or copied from those directories?!

Answer 4184

• posted by: Ali on 2015-05-03
• score: 3

As it has been pointed out, you may run into copyright issues if you just scan them and take the links. But you can do the following

• Talk to the existing directories and license their content from them. You would be paying a little but it would save you work and effort
• Generate your own content. You can approach the businesses that carry the product and inform them of your directory and why you are better than others. This would involve more work but wouldn’t have to may any licensing fees. The content would also add intellectual property value to your business.

Re: Edit 2 - The thing with copyright is not whether someone finds out or not, the thing is that if the content creator has reserved rights on duplicating it then we are supposed to respect that by law. And if we go ahead and copy his material, and he realizes it, he can sue us and the law maybe on his side. So, if the person has publicly stated do not copy his material then legally we should not copy his material. If we want, we can go and create a duplicate of it using other sources and means which would be okay in this situation.

If there was no copyright notice, then it would be a gray area. It may mean he is okay with somebody copying it or he can sue anyway, and you can claim that he can no copyright notice and the judge would decide. Most businesses would not risk it and would verify it before going ahead.

Answer 4179

• posted by: adrianh on 2015-05-03
• score: 2

Generally no.

• Normal copyright will apply. Just like you cannot copy other peoples articles.

• Within the EU there are also particular copyright protections for databases http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/copyright/prot-databases/index_en.htm

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