Websites Complaining About Screen-Scraping

wilko11 writes "There have been two cases recently where websites have requested the removal of modules from CPAN. These modules could be used to access the websites (EuroTV and Streetmap) from a PERL program. The question being asked on the mailinglists (threads about EuroTV and about Streetmap) is 'can companies dictate what software you can use to access web content from their server?'"

Comments

paging Jack Valenti

[sydlexic]

didn't you read the terms of service agreement you were handed at birth (us citizens only) that states any bypassing of ads during receipt of content is theft?

I'm just waiting for ashcroft's goons to knock on my door, find the tivo and haul my ass off to jail.

Re:paging Jack Valenti

[merlyn]

"Click Here To Accept Your Life's Conditions: [Agree] [Disagree]"

{grin}

Re:paging Jack Valenti

[trbogie]

I thought they were trying to modify that to say that "Having left the womb, you have, by default, accepted the agreements to all life's conditions."

Re:paging Jack Valenti

[flacco]

"Click Here To Accept Your Life's Conditions: [Agree] [Disagree]"

A slight correction:

"Click Here To Accept Your Life's Conditions: [Agree] [Agree]"

Re:paging Jack Valenti

[jon doh!]

a correction of the correction

"Click Here To Accept Your Life's Conditions: [Agree] [Disagree]"

(it's greyed out, like the microsoft patch i applied that said "you need to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect" and had two buttons, one to reboot now, one to reboot later. the reboot later was greyed out...)

Re:paging Jack Valenti

[renegade600]

However, please be aware that your conditions for living may change without notice...Violating the terms for Your Life's Conditions may result in the termination...

All I got to say it thats "Life"

What falls out the back end of a bull?

[Wonko42]

"I've written packages that defeat those silly "enter the word contained in the image" tests..."

Ahem. Bullshit.

Re:What falls out the back end of a bull?

[stratjakt]

>> If an image of an apple is shown and the question is "what fruit is shown in the image"?

Steve Jobs?

Re:In short, no.

[molarmass192]

Off topic but ...
<grin>
Everybody knows that guns DO NOT kill people ... bullets DO!!!
</grin>

Re:Sure they can!

[CaseyB]

Hmm. I didn't have trouble with any of them. (Reload for different variants.)

It may be that the tests go beyond a simple Turing test and also validate for a certain level of intelligence. I suppose that would be useful sometimes as well.

"You must be _this_ smart to ride our web site."

Re:In short, no.

[Ivan Raikov]

Everybody knows that guns DO NOT kill people ... bullets DO!!!

I know you were only joking, but I feel obligated to point out that the acceleration of the bullet, times its mass, gives it the force necessary to penetrate your body and disrupt the function of vital organs.

Re:Don't they already???

[Spunk]

You are aware that AOL, Netscape, and Mozilla are the same people, right?

(more or less)

Re:paging Jack Valenti (morbid humor)

[Dr. Photo]

"Having left the womb, you have, by default, accepted the agreements to all life's conditions."

Well, there are ways to terminate the agreement, but they ain't pretty...

Birth agreement

[lastberserker]

Then I assume such agreements do not apply to c-section kids, do they? Oh the ineffable joy of medical techno... oops... does this make c-section DMCA circumvention device? =8-Z