Hello, people Just wonder is spidering DMOZ to overtake links to own directory is within the terms of DMOZ? ... and probably the other question follows - is it legal in front of other sites, which is going to be listed without knowing. Thank you for your replies!
Have you read the information on using ODP data and how to access it? Here's the link for you: http://www.dmoz.org/rdf.html Details of the license itself are found here: http://www.dmoz.org/license.html Anything outside that is under the control of AOL's Legal Department, so you would have to ask them.
What AOL? Doe s that mean DMOZ is controlled by AOL? i thought it is an open directory protcol initiative.
Someone has to provide the "machinery" and staff to keep it working, and that is done by AOL, who also hold the copyright, as explained in those links I provided. You can read more about it here: http://www.dmoz.org/about.html All editing is done by volunteers, but legal and technical matters are of course handled by AOL staff, and editors have no control or input into those processes.
Thank you for your respsnses Makrhod, thanks a lot for the links, ill read it carefully ... seems like it is ok.
It would be SUPER if you (or ANYONE from the ODP) could give the proper link or email address so that anyone can ask AOL anything regarding DMOZ. I keep seeing editors asking people to ask AOL directory, but thus far I've yet to see any editor give a means for asking.
Why on earth do you need our help to contact AOL? Besides, as we have repeatedly explained, volunteer editors have precisely the same means of access to AOL that you do, so if you can't find the contact details by yourself, you can't be trying too hard. However, I'm feeling helpful today, so here's a tip for you. Go to http://www.aol.com/ and click on "Help & Feedback" in the top right corner. Then choose whichever menu item seems to fit your concern, and go from there.
DMOZ has no valid copyright on it's directory structure or content, so you can do anything that you like. For more complete discussion on why ODP claims about copyright is nothing but BS, you can read this thread. DMOZ has no copyright
Really? Nothing some want to hear, perhaps, but for people interested in learning something about DMOZ, or in getting truthful and knowledgable answers to their questions, I think I have plenty to say. All the answers I give are factual, honest and (rare for this forum) completely without selfish agenda, unlike advice such as yours above: Misleading as usual, but there's none so deaf as those that won't hear, of course.
LOL. Do you seriously expect some one believe this nonsense? Thank again for a good laugh but if you have anything remotely factual to say about the copyright issue you are welcome to post it in the thread that was started by me, so I can answer you.
Oh... how about the contact info for the ODP itself? I searched on AOL a while back and could not find any reference to the ODP or DMOZ. I tried the help files of AOL and the only reference to the ODP is for OpenDocument Presentations *shrug* I guess I could just send them a generalized EMAIL, but then, one of the best ways to NOT get a listing in the regional section of the ODP is to NOT have proper contact information. Funny that such a thing would make it hard for the ODP when the ODP contact information is completely lacking or broken. Not even a member of the META team is willing to help. Says a lot about the inner working of the ODP is the top editors just assume no one contact them or staff [sarcasm] Thanks for the help! [/sarcasm]