Copyrights: ODP, YAHOO

[ProjectZ]

Hey all,

I'm doing a research paper. And I would like to know the following questions:
Is the open directory project copyrighted?
Is the yahoo directory copyrighted?

When I ask this, I mean if you can reproduce parts of it without any violation. If they are copyrighted, could you please explain to me which parts of the directories?

Thanks all!

[AzAkers]

You may want to visit each of these sites and spend a little time in their TOS

DMOZ:
http://dmoz.org/license.html

Yahoo:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/copyright/copyright.html

[ProjectZ]

hey thanks for those links Az! the dmoz directory license link is clear... However, with the yahoo one, it does not mention the directory..

[fryman]

Dmoz couldn't care less about people using their directory.

I don't think Yahoo would allow it, so better forget about that.

[nevetS]

There was a legal decision sometime last year that held databases/lists of facts were not copyrightable. I don't know how relevant the decision is, but I'm sure using either directory's data as a starting point is entirely legal. The description text is written by the site owners and I don't recall handing over any copyright power to Yahoo or DMOZ for my listings. A direct copy of all the html is probably a problem, but using pieces of their data is probably not. Using their entire database might be an issue as well, but with Yahoo you'd have to spider and they'd block you unless you took over a month (heck, maybe a year) to get the data. With DMOZ it's all published under RDF, so using their entire database is easier, but their directory is full of urls that will send you to 404s and their directory structure is less than desirable IMO.

[Solicitors Mortgages]

the was some legal wranglings recently about a site wanting to duplicate googles
'non copyrightable content'........
so Google just delisted them :)

will post a link if i can find it :(

[macdesign]

To be precise, you are allowed to use ODP/DMOZ data if and only if you follow the terms of use - and provide proper attribution, as defined in http://dmoz.org/license.html and http://dmoz.org/license_faq.html

Failure to do so may result in AOL lawyers contacting the offender and will probably result in delisting of all sites [from the ODP directory] that are owned by company that vilates the rules.

Also read http://dmoz.org/socialcontract.html first paragraph and the links there.

Copyright is in http://dmoz.org/termsofuse.html

under Copyright Assignment and Claims of Copyright Infringement