asp4bunnies - 4:30 pm on Jun 14, 2004 (gmt 0)

Yes, this scraping question bothers me as well. I'm running a site that quotes different sources from around the web on a particular topic (i.e. movies). So I take 1 paragraph or brief summary from the entire review as part of the quote and link to the full article. The resulting display of all of the review snippets is used to paint a clear picture on what people collectively think of it, but certainly isn't used to steal content. The reviews are credited and linked to the full article.

If anything our website creates a substantial market for the reviews. People visiting our website go to reviews that seem to be interesting based on the snippet we pick. If they like the site enough they are sure to visit again. If not, well at least that publisher got ad revenue from the non-return visitors as well.

I don't see how we'd be a useful service without publishing the snippet. Headlines alone can be incredibly deceptive or uninformative.

This surely falls under fair use under the DMCA. The only country in the world that I know of that doesn't even allow snippets or headlines to be used is Scotland. (So yes, we avoid posting Scottish reviews). So I certainly hope that people don't view us as "evil."