Hi, Can we parse dmoz.org directly and dmoz allow this ? I got a script that directly parse dmoz www.freephpdirectoryscript.com/ODP/ Is it ok to use this script Thanks Nida
You can do almost anything you want with DMOZ content. DMOZ has no enforceable copyright contrary to their claims. You can look at this thread about the DMOZ copyright . http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=89688
I recommend that you ask this question at www.resource-zone.com - that is one of the "allowable" questions. IMO I wouldn't listen to gworld in this matter, his interpretations are unique (to say the least). Please weigh your decision to violate copyright against your ability to pay any litigation costs, should the owners of DMOZ decide to use you as an example in a court case.
If you want just bunch of BS from bunch of A*sholes then you should definitely visit resourceless zone. Ask imocr about the list of "DMOZ" enemies inside DMOZ. There are hundreds of sites in that list because they use DMOZ content with no copyright notice. Don't you think if they had the slightest belief that they had a valid copyright, they would have done something by now instead of making their stupid list.
Not entirely unique lmocr, the more you actually examine the issue of copyright the less credible ODP's claims really are. Some elements such as the layout and design may possibly be copyright, even the product in its entirety. Much like an author can claim copyright for a book but not over words or sentences used in the book, nor the concept of a chapter or the name of a chapter. Editors mine link pages and other directories with impunity, and may well accept the titles and descriptions from those sources without any consideration for copyright. They may well take an unsubmitted site and use a sentence taken verbatim from the site as part of the description. And the titles are from the site or company behind the site, certainly not ODP copyright. There is actually no way the ODP can identify and separate original work by editors from content ripped from other sources and simply displayed as ODP data, and without that evidence there is no way it can claim copyright. And no, I wouldn't ask the question in RZ, you will only get the official ODP line there, which is definitely flawed. It pains me to agree with gworld on anything but I think on balance he has it right on this one. I think if you take the RDF dump then you are availing yourself of a service with terms and conditions attached which personally I think you should abide by. But parsing the content is very much the same in concept as a Googlebot indexing the page.
Even if we forget about the above problem, it is common knowledge that original category structure was copied from Usenet. Usenet was partially financed by American government. Works financed by Federal government can not be copyrighted. DMOZ structure is a derivative work of original USENET structure and the copyright to derivative works still belongs to original owner and since there is no owner in this case then derivative work can not have a copyright owner either. I am glad that you have finally seen the light on this question. Now, if you pay a little bit more attention, you will notice that I am also right on the other questions.
I very very rarely ever make a post in regards to anythng DMOZ stated and/or related, but you take the cake with this post. Wake up and realize where DMOZ acquired a good majority of their *cough*copyrighted*cough* non-original material