I'm working on a project to help customers find products from various retailers on my website. The idea is to build a tool that scrapes product information from different sellers' pages and creates a centralized product listing—like a search index for users. Each scraped product will link back to the seller's website. I'm planning to scrape about 30 different products from a JSON list on a single page and gather additional details by accessing individual product URLs. The information is publicly accessible without requiring any sign-up, and my site won't be monetized. Is this approach legal and ethical? Are there any important legal points I should consider, especially regarding the use of robots.txt?
4 Answers
Definitely avoid using their images and be careful with descriptions. Almost every website has copyright, so it's good practice to paraphrase. If their terms say no scraping, you should respect that. Also, ensure there's a way for sellers to reach out to you and request removal if needed—this can help you avoid future headaches.
Heads up! Web scraping can become a hassle quickly. Many sites frequently change their layouts, which means you'll have to keep updating your scraping script. Plus, if you're hitting their servers too often, they might block you, so make sure to manage your requests wisely.
Generally, web scraping is legal if you aren't violating other laws like copyright. In your case, gathering basic info like prices and URLs should be fine. However, be cautious with images, as those might be protected by copyright if the original sites created them. The ethical side is more subjective, but it seems like you're trying to help users navigate the marketplace more easily!
Remember, using images or even full verbatim descriptions can lead to copyright issues. Giving users traffic to the seller's store might keep them from being upset, but be careful about what you scrape!
Do you have access to legal advice? As a student, you might find resources through your university that can help clarify any legal gray areas.
No, I don't have an attorney, but I'll look into university resources!
So basically, just avoid making money off the data and don't overload the sites you're scraping from.