According the the EuroTV site:
...
Information contained on this server is copyrighted and may not be distributed, modified, reused, re-posted, or otherwise used outside the scope of a "WWW client" without the express written permission of B. On The Net, owner of the EuroTV site.
...
Technically, the WWW::EuroTV mod is a "WWW client". Lets say instead of using Netscape, I use my own perl script to display the information on EuroTV.com within my terminal. My script is acting as a WWW client.
At the same time, I could also use WWW::EuroTV to grab all the content from the eurotv.com site and redisplay on my own site, johnstvguide.com. This would go against their copyright statement.
The thing is, CPAN and the mod author aren't the people who are redistributing the content. They are just providing an interface that displays the content in text form. EuroTV should direct their frustration towards those who actually abuse the mod.
And there is nothing special about the mod itself. I could just as easily use another product to redistribute the EuroTV content. I could use other Perl mods like LWP::Simple + some regex, or commercial apps like WebWacker,
and I could also copy it manually from Netscape -> View Source.
I think Johan should elaborate on these points with EuroTV, maybe they would see the point. For what its worth, I don't think something like this would ever go to court. Besides, if there is enough international separation between the two parties, then it is very likely nothing would happen legally. Its one thing to sue somebody within your own country, its a whole different story when you try and sue someone from another country.
-John Von Essen
On Thursday, February 6, 2003, at 03:05 PM, Gabor Szabo wrote:
Some of you might have seen this as this went to the module-authors list. What do you think about the legal aspects of this ?Gabor http://www.perl.org.il/ -------- Original Message -------- Subject: IMPORTANT: Request removal of WWW::EuroTV Date: Thu, 06 Feb 2003 14:21:52 +0100 From: johanvdb <johan at vandenbrande.com> To: module-authors at perl.org Dear, I've written WWW::EuroTV, a module to grab TV listings from the site of www.eurotv.com. Today, they treatened me with a law-suit for writing this module. I would like to have the WWW::EuroTV module removed as soon as possible from CPAN and any of its mirrors. I wonder - if they are right - what implications this would have for other module authors in the WWW:: name space ... Regards, Johan Van den rande
John Von Essen ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) President, Essenz Consulting (www.essenz.com) Phone: (800) 248-1736 Fax: (800) 852-3387
