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Is Data Mining for Product Pricing, Illegal?
wessman asks: "I started to read Orin S. Kerr's 80-page paper looking for how his proposal would pertain to: ripping music/movies, P2P, corporate espionage, and lastly, the use of web scraper robots. Little did I know just how relevant his paper would be in regards to that last item! Kerr makes note of EF Cultural Travel v. Explorica in which Explorica is caught hiring a consultant to program a scraping robot to gather pricing information from a competitor, EF Cultural Travel. Well, I do consulting on the side from home and am currently working a project whereby I gather pricing information from all the major travel conglomerates (Orbitz, Expedia, Lodging.com, WorldRes, Sabre, etc.) so that the travel booking business that hired me can meet or beat all their prices. Granted, the circumstances of the Explorica case are different and the case was an example of an extreme ruling, but my questions to the Slashdot community are: Do I notify the company that hired me of the Explorica case? Why is using a scraper robot so different from, say, walking into Best Buy with a handheld and recording product pricing manually? Should I continue with this project and the similar projects I do in this area of programming?" Now, add in the text in the "deliverables" section of this press release and it seems we may have some contradictory information. Who is right, and under what circumstances is price harvesting off of the internet not allowed?
Anybody remember the Popeye cartoon where Popeye opens a car wash, and then Bluto opens a car wash right across the street?
When Popeye posts his price, Bluto beats it by five cents. Then Popeye beats Bluto's by five cents.
It goes back and forth until Popeye is washing cars for free.
I was tempted to call this an infinite loop, but I doubt a retailer would pay you to take their products.
Of course it is. Let's dissect this sentence:
Not having the comma would completely distort the meaning of the sentence.
My grandmother calls this "shopping around." The only difference is that someone else is doing all the work.
Smeghead every day of the week.
Who is this "Illegal" person and why are we asking him questions about Star Trek characters?
I'm not "Illegal," but I'll answer. Seeing as how he was killed off in the last movie, I think it's safe to say that no, Data is not mining for product pricing.
(In other words, you illiterate clods need to be more careful with your commas.)
why, you little! gakk, gakk, gakk (bart choking)
Oh.
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Free your mind.
When somebody asked him how he can make a living like that, he replied:
"Volume!"
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
I'd say yes. Second only to apostrophe's.
Everything that was once directly lived has receded into a representation. -debord
Sorry, I call bullshit.
Over the past 6 or 7 years I've used a palm (handspring visor, to be more precise) hundreds of times, in every Best Buy (and Circuit City, MicroCenter, etc.) in the Boston area to record prices. I've never had anyone even look at me funny.
Maybe it's related to how guilty (or difficult to remove) you look, but I really doubt that happened to anyone ever (note the once-removed story -- it's always a 'friend of mine' in these types of stories.)
In any case, what kind of wuss would leave without making a fuss and forcing them to call the police over something so ridiculous? I could be using my palm to look up my friend's number to call and ask which video card to buy. Fsck them if they don't like it.
Or, maybe this particular Best Buy was located in an airplane and the event happened during takeoff or landing. Or your friend lied to you. One or the other.
everything in moderation
Or if you're really married to using that comma:
"Data Mining for Product Pricing, Is It Illegal?"
Commas just don't get used enough. Maybe he just wants to get more even wear on his keyboard. I'm sur we can expect more tildes soon!
Commas just don't get used enough.
Perhaps not, and I don't wanna get all grammar -nazi prescriptive here, but if I was writing that strapline, I would have used a colon.
Data Mining for Product Pricing: Is It Illegal?
Like the previous poster said, you would more properly use a colon. The better way to write the original subject would be
"Is Data Mining, For the Purposes of Product Pricing, Illegal?"
which does not make for a snappy headline. I believe
"Is Data Mining, For Product Pricing, Illegal?"
would also be correct.
I'd like to see more semicolons, myself, but nobody really knows how to use them.
Java: the bastard demon spawn of C++ and Ada