Is it Legal to Copy Content from a Website?

Hi All,

A friend of mine tell me that if you copy content from other website and then paste into your own website then its legal but I am not satisfied because google said that do not copy or spin content. Content must be unique.
Another thing is he said that while pasting content also read the reference of that website.
Someone please help me is it true or not.

Thanks

 

Yes its perfectly legal - or you couldn't have tons of search engines using bots to spider then index content.
The general rule is if its in the public domain already, you can use it - but to steal loads of it (on a per site basis) could be frowned upon. But if a site in question says stay of the grass - then you must obey...

But why do you need others content? You didn't build it up, and it makes you no different to the site you swiped it from, so minimal benefit in it Always better to build your own content, but you don't need to hand write it all.... you can automate the process if a info resource is your aim..

 

Copying text or images from other sites which is called plagiarism is NOT legal. So you need to avoid it as much as possible

 

So when a robot copies text from a website for indexing purposes - this is illegal? Better tell Google, MSN and Bing quick...

 

No, No way, Search engine hates copied content in any way...

 

You're wrong, there's legal precedence that allows search engines to do this....but not you, or generally anybody else without explicit permission, because it would be copyright infringement.

 

Ofcourse, I know about this - shame the distinction wasn't made earlier. I thought the OP wanted to rip off huge amounts of content

 

You're implying that since search engines can do it, you can too. That's not the case.

Search engines can legally cache an entire page. You cannot. They can capture and replicate snippets from the page, and you can't do that either.

No....you can't just use somebody else's content, even if it's only a "little bit". A site doesn't have to explicitly prohibit you from doing this, it is an inherent protection that anybody who publishes unique material receives. They have to explicitly permit your use, not explicit prohibit your use.

Copyright infringement is a very complicated topic that varies greatly based on scenario and jurisdiction, but generally speaking, no, you as a website owner cannot copy and paste unique content from any other website without explicit permission. Even though search engines can.

 

no it is not legal once google caught they demote your page in search engine.

 

Not at all, don't copy content from any where from the web or other website. Now a day's the scenario has been totally changed and Google very strictly about it. If your content will duplicate with other website then your website definitely penalize. And your marketing will start with struggle, it just same as bed of thorns.

 

Thanks all for answer. what if I write reference of that content. For example I copy the data from w3cschool and paste it on my website but in the last I paste the link of that content and also write the note in which its mention that this content is copied from w3cschool. so what you say about this.
its a big help for me.
thanks again.

 

No, that does not free you of wrongdoing. Much like you can't kill a man as long as you say "oh yeah, I did it", you can't steal content even if you admit to doing it.

You cannot copy content from any other website unless that website or author specifically tells you that you are allowed to do it.

 

I got it. I understand what you want it to say. Thanks brother

 

Agreed, but I think the OP was wanting to 'acquire information' to display it for his site?? Thus, would he really be caught in reality, as can the publisher be
bothered to prosecute for it... and prosecutions can be very expensive, hassle involved etc. I'm not encouraging content theft - by the way.

 

Never Copy content for any Website.
Because Google detect the copied part and hence you never get the ranking for your keywords.
and it may lead to go your website sandbox !!

so In my opinion you should Avoid !

 

It is not legal my friend... Although there is no duplicate penalty in Google, they know the original owner of the content

 

Why do you copy from others? You can copy content but won't be able to success with copied content. Always think about unique content.

 

Its not good practice for SEO. May be for content no one is going to sue you but Google would consider it as duplicate content and it will be bad for your ranking.

 

Yes you are saying right but my question is if I write the references of that content then what will be the results? I don't want to copy all content for website just copy one or two content with reference.