McAfee Grabbed Data Without Paying, Says Open Source Vulnerability Database

mask.of.sanity (1228908) writes with this excerpt from The Register: "'Intel security subsidiary McAfee may be in hot water after it allegedly scraped thousands of records from the Open Source Vulnerability Database instead of paying for them. The slurp was said to be conducted using fast scripts that rapidly changed the user agent, and was launched after McAfee formally inquired about purchasing a license to the data.' Law experts say the site's copyright could be breached by individuals merely downloading the information in contravention to the site's policies, and did not require the data to be subsequently disseminated."

Comments

My data

[StripedCow]

Hi, MS programmer here. I caused most of those vulnerabilities, so actually it is MY data.

Re:McAfee in trouble

[lister king of smeg]

I think to be consistent, Aaron Swartz's supporters have to take McAfee's side.

No this is different.
With Aaron it was scientific papers that were funded with public money then locked behind a private paywall and none of the proceeds going back to to the public, Arron then tried to download them a give them back to the public that paid for the writing of said documentation.
In this case it is Mcafee is stealing info that was privatively funded by another private company and keeping it for themselves.
The situations are completely different as well as their motivation.