Mashups - Legal Issues
Legal Issues In Web Mashup Development
By
James Murithi
Fall 2007
Contents
1.
Introduction
2.
APIs
3.
Facebook API
4.
Web feeds
5.
Laws related to Mashups
6.
Deep and inline linking
7.
Other things to consider
8.
Conclusion
9.
Legal suite
10.
Conclusion
INTRODUCTION - Mashups
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A Mashup is the result of an Internet application that
blends or mashes together two or more sources of content
or data (often called Web services) available on the
Internet. Ref[3]
Mashups vary in content from a user developed Mashup
that search ebay for the best notebook computer deals to
powerful applications that combine several databases with
maping applications like google or yahoo maps to show
you real time parking availability in for example downtown
Chicago.
Web feeds and API's...oh my!
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An API is an application programming interface. Just like any application
programming interface in computer science a website API provides a
programmer with an interface to send requests for predefined services. Its an
abstraction layer that saves us a great deal of programming. To write a
Mashup a developer may have to access a websites API.
There are two types of APIs out there. Some are free for all (FFA) others are
proprietary APIs. Free APIs do not require any payment, all you need to do is
follow the terms of use. Examples of sites that provide free APIs include
yahoo, google, amazon and indeed.com on the other hand to use a
proprietary web API however you need to pay some amount and sign also
sign a license agreement.
Continued:
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Do not be fooled by the term free API they come with terms and
conditions that you are required to follow, some of of which could be
harder to fulfil than you thought they would (example shown below).
These terms cover issues like acceptable use, restriction on number
of results you can get, advertising, credit among other issues.
Yahoo! offers an API which they call Yahoo web services. It is free to
use for non commercial use. But as a part of the terms of use for their
maps service you must display your advertisements on the same
page you display the yahoo map you mashed up. Ref[4] A developer
must therefore pay attention and make sure they read all the terms
before using an API.
FaceBook API
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FaceBook is a fast growing social network which seems to be very promising
as a base for targeted advertising.
FaceBooks API is free (but use is limited by the terms as usual), using the
API you can develop applications that run on FaceBook. Maybe become
famous?
Just to illustrate how APIs work one of the basic things you would want your
application to do is findout if two people are FaceBook friends
friends.areFriends is a call that returns whether or not a pair of users are
facebook friends. There are tens of functions in the API that will allow you to
make an app and these are very well documented. The future is bright for
the creative
Web feed
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Wikipedia defines a web feed as a data format used for providing
users with frequently updated content. Website administrators use
feeds to publish news articles, advertisements, and generally content
that is changing frequently
By subscribing to a web feed using any application that can fetch a
feed a user would be saved the trouble of having to log in to a site
each time they desire to see the new content on the site. For example
I can configure my mail client (thunder bird) to fetch an rss feed from
slickdeals.net, this way I get the latest updates sent to my in box in a
format that looks exactly like email.
Continued:
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It gets better! You can develop a Mashup by simply linking different
web feeds to a single page using an application like yahoo pipes.
Pipes will fetch feeds and display their contents on a webpage
without you having to write any code of your own. By tweaking a
simple pipe you can make an acceptable Mashup.
Real Simple Syndication (RSS) is the most common web feed
currently on the web. You can recognize a site that offers the RSS
service if you see the rss symbol, by clicking the symbol on your
browser you will be subscribed to the feed, a rolling que with the
latest items at the front.
API terms and conditions
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These are sort of rules laid down by the API provider for the use of their
service, mash up creators are required to read these and comply.
Usually most terms and conditions allow you to use their API for non
commercial use. Others require that you advertise the company. For
example the yahoo maps API requires that you include advertisements on
the same page you use the yahoo maps.
Are terms and conditions binding? The web is world wide, this could possibly
lead to legal issues. Different states and countries have different contract
laws and agreement laws. A Mashup user has to be aware of the law that the
terms was made under just to be safe on their side.
Trademark laws
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A trademark or trade mark[1] is a distinctive sign or indicator of
some kind which is used by an individual, business organization
or other legal entity to uniquely identify the source of its
products and/or services to consumers, and to distinguish its
products or services from those of other entities. Ref[3]
A Mashup developer can violate a web service provider's
trademark or service mark by misleadingly associating the
Mashup with the web service provider, causing confusion as to
the source of the Mashup. Ref[1]
Generally a Mashup developer should be careful when giving
credit to their source. You may use someone else's trademark
with good intentions and end up violating trademark laws.
Obscenity laws
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All states have laws governing the distribution of obscene
materials. Generally, these statutes prohibit the sale, lending,
renting, giving, publication, exhibition or other dissemination of
materials, with general knowledge of their obscene character
and content. Drafted before an electronic age, many states
define “materials” as covering any writing, written matter,
picture, pictorial representation, film or motion picture, or sound
recording. Ref[2]
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Web service users post obscene material to providers all the time.
Apparently cunning users even have ways to trick search engines to return
obscene results for seemingly innocent queries. Ref[1]
Obscenity laws may be used against a Mashup developer if a minor
[anybody under the age of 18] gains access to obscene material through
their Mashup. Most states enforce obescenity laws particulary for minors, the
law does not cover adults.
Since a Mashup highly depends on a webservice that the developer has no
control of they should be very careful about what they choose to feed into
their Mashup especially when it comes to images. You are more likely to get
nude pictures from service providers more than you are likely to get
innappropriate text.
Contract laws
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A contract is an agreement betweem two parties. Further the parties
to a contract must have mutual understanding of what the contract
covers. Ref[5] This is where it gets tricky for Mashup developers.
Since there is rarely a physical meeting between parties in this case
Mashup developers may be tempted to tick the check box and get
something going as soon as possible. I would advice against this. It is
your responsibility to read and understand everything in the contract.
Read even the eight point print. A Mashup developer can break
contract laws by not following all or some of the terms of service that
a web service provider demands. A simple example would be not
displaying your advertisements on the same page you have a yahoo
map. This is a term required by yahoo for their service but its so easy
to forget.
Warranty laws
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So you want to be certain that your Mashup sources will be
realiable and available?
The truth is most service providers clearly disclaim warranty for
the availability, reliability and comprehensiveness of their
service. These include google and Flickr
You may want to consider this if you know your Mashup will be
used by many. As a Mashup developer you should also disclaim
warranties to protect yourself. It would actually be a good idea
to disclaim warranties for the accuracy of the content because
there is no way you can personally guarantee this.
Patent laws
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A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to an
inventor or his assignee for a fixed period of time in exchange
for a disclosure of an invention. Ref[1]
Processes can be patented and some web services have
processes that are patented. These can be infringed upon by a
Mashup developer by accessing data, manipulating it or
combining it with other data.
Before using a web service it is impotant to find out what
patents exist in a web service.
Copyright laws
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Copyright laws do not protect raw data but it protects compilations of
the data if as a whole the compilation contains at least a minimal
amount of creativity such that it constitutes and original work of
authorship (such as in selection, coordination and/or arrangement of
the data). Ref[1]
Special attention has to be take to make sure that you do not use an
entire database belonging to someone else in your Mashup. Robert
S. Gerber also says that combining an entire database with other
data into a new form would be a violation of copyright. Ref[1]
Generally a Mashup developer wants to be sure what they are using
as a source does not constitute a complete work of authorship
belonging to someone else.
Deep linking
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Most websites especially those rich in information may have several
layers that form a sort of hierarchy that looks like a tree. The lower
levels are deeper in the hierarchy and are several clicks away.
Normally everybody will see the higher level and many may never get
lower down the hierarchy which makes the higher levels suitable for
advertising. A good example is a website splash page or home page.
When you create a Mashup you have the power to directly access
information that's deep down in the hierarchy thus bypass a websites
splashpage for example or even worse their advertisements page
(this is deep information several layers down the hierarchy)
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Currently the legality of deep linking has not been resolved so If you
are a Mashup developer you have to be careful about the websites
terms or somehow agree with them so that if you Mashup ends up
getting a lot of hits you don't get sued for bypassing their
advertisements etc
If you are a website developer you want to make sure you stop
people from accessing deep content directly or explicitly state the
terms
In-line linking
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Also known as hot linking, leeching, piggy-backing, direct
linking, off site image grabs and bandwidth theft
When you use an object linked from another site in your page
you are deep linking in other words the image you are using is
not stored on your servers but someone else's server. This is
often but not always an image. Hot linking is more likely to be
used in an unacceptable way than deep linking is because hot
linking involves combining someone else's work with your own
content while in line linking does not constitute a change in
context in the same way.
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To illustrate how hot linking can be unacceptable think of a Mashup
that uses images from other sites. Chances are your Mashup users
will never know where the image is located yet for each user that is
connected to your Mashup the browser has to download a picture
from another location. Ultimately you are using that other sites
bandwidth.
Hot linking can also be abused by displaying a picture in a context
that its original owner may never approve of. For example you can
link cartoons from a newspaper to a different story.
True story – legal suite
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In 2003 ticketmaster filed a suite against tickets.com to prevent them from
directly linking to concert listings within ticketmasters website.
Tickets.com bypassed ticktmasters homepage, where there are
advertisements
One of their arguments was that deep linking is a violation of copyright
and/or trademark rights, because it allows a website to use someone else’s
informational pages for its own benefit.
The other argument was that deep linking is a form of trespass, since it
consists of going into someone’s property – a website – without entering in
the fashion prescribed by the owner.
Ticketmaster lost the suite. Deep linking is not considered copyright violation
since no copying is done, however someone may still make the same kind of
argument ticketmaster did.
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The previous scenario demonstrates that how hard it is to control anything that is
available on the web. Terms and conditions can be violated without penalty. Since we
cannot enforce compliance to terms of use universally a lot of it boils down to an
individuals principles and morality. ethics or more specifically computer ethics or
human issues in computing.
Another scenario: you use a feed out of some website which itself was not the source
of the information. Do you both get sued if terms are violated?
Other things to consider
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The internet cuts across boundaries, jurisdictions, states, nations, continents. This
causes a problem when it comes to applying the laws we have discussed in previous
slides. There is no standard law that everyone in the world is required to obey or
maybe there is but its just so hard to enforce because of the anonymity the web gives
for one and also because its just hard to hunt down someone in a foreign nation and
force them to comply with the terms. A Mashup developer therefore needs to think
about their users location, relevant laws and such issues.
You need to choose a jurisdiction within which your Mashup will lie. Like your Mashup
will be backed up by the legal system within the jurisdiction you choose. It would be
silly to use French laws if most of your clients will be located in North America.
There is definitely a need to consider applicable information laws in other countries if
you think it may give people legal ground to 'touch' you.
Conclusion
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Mashup developers need to read, understand and abide to API terms of use
Mashup developers should consider ways of protecting their work. Especially it is
wise to know laws related to published work and how they vary according to
jurisdiction. Its a good idea to disclaim warranties or guarantees of any kind.
Mashup developers are bound by copyright, patent and other laws that relate to
published work and have to be careful not to infringe on the website service providers
rights.
Mashup developers also need think about ways they can protect their creation or
processes embedded in their original work.
References
1. Intellectual property and technology law journal, August 2006: Legal issues
arising from internet Mashups
2. http://www.lorenavedon.com/laws.htm
3. wikipedia.com
4. developer.yahoo.com
5. http://www.expertlaw.com/library/business/contract_law.html
6. developers.facebook.com
7. wiki.Mashupcamp.com
8. pascal.vanhecke.info
DISCLAIMER: The information in these slides is provided without warranties of any kind, the views presented here are those of the author and not necessarily those of the BGSU® CS department .