Q: I want to know about data scraping and possible copyright infringement.
I want to create a social app for people that collect things, but I need public data to do it. For instance, this site http://www.tycollector.com/beanies/beanie-roster.htm has a list of all beanie babies and info about them. I need the data so collectors can id their items. They would be able to buy and sell these items from each other, but the app itself would be free. Can I legally scrape that data?
A:
Copyright related to compilations of data is a specific area of copyright law and analysis of the exact list and estimations of the mental effort and transformation to the underlying facts in the list may be part of the analysis. If you are doing research on your own, and want a potential starting point, look for copyright cases related used car pricing as guidance for legal standards about copyright related to lists of data.
This answer is not legal advice and does not form an attorney client relationship. This answer includes generalizations and there are many caveats. Retaining a lawyer may be the best option for the described situation.
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