Commercial Use: Please define!
 

Okay, I have been looking through all sorts of websites with RSS feeds, and many of them say "can be used in blogs, but cannot be used for commercial purposes".

Now, would I be correct in saying that a blog, even with advertising, is NOT a commercial purpose because I am not reselling access (IE: access to the aggregator site would be free)?

I am trying to find if anyone has any legal background on this or something on point I could go and read.

Any ideas would be appreciated!

Alex

Hi Alex,

I have a lot of experience using feeds in blogs. I can't offer you legal advice but can share a few pointers and things I've picked up.

When it says commercial this usually applies to a site that contains any form of advertising. When borrowing feeds, explore the sites TOS and / or AUP, looking for any mention of syndication restrictions. You should also be prepared for people, webmasters, and lawyers accusing you of copyright infringement. Most people assume that when they see their content on your site, you've lifted the code or copy and pasted the words. They have no understanding of feeds, so will accuse you of theft and make all kinds of inane threats. Your host will then contact you and you'll have to explain it to them (because I'm betting they wont know too much about the legallity or technology either).

In terms of the law and ethics I am almost positive that you are free to borrow feeds if there is no restrictions posted on their website. However, you will run into dozens of headaches. When I first started, I got an email ever 3 or 4 days. I now have appx 4500 syndicated feeds for wordpress blogs and get an email every week or so.

I could tell you an easy work around but it's not something I practice myself and I wouldnt want to give ideas to anyone who might try. The best ways are to get permission (many webmasters or surfer webmasters are flattered when you ask), have people come to you with their feeds, read the accepted use policies on sites, or locate sites who expressly WANT you to use their feeds.

i don't think simply having an rss feeds adds to permission to use the feed , its like saying that the site is on the net so they are allowing you to use it for any purpose you want , without permission it's all the same thing , copyright theft

as for commercial use , my understanding is , if you make money off the blog , or atleast attempt to make money off it, that is a commecial interest

Yeah, I sort of resigned myself to fielding any number of "you are violating our copyright" messages from companies who are too ignorant to understand that their feed is being used verbatim and entirely linked to their site.

I have also considered using a variation of the_exterpt tag to stay within reason, showing no more on a page than a search engine might in quoting part of a page.

I was hoping that someone might know of a legal case or some other judgement that might apply to fair use in this manner.

Alex

In the same moment, you have on your site the possibility to make just 1 cent (like for advertising ctr's) you will have a commercial site. That's easy, isn't it?

What happens if I am not the one making the one cent? Let's say a free blog host that adds a DHTML ad on the side?

Is it commercial if I don't charge for access to content?

Alex

Let's say, for instance, you syndicate feeds from other sites. You setup a cron job to update every hour. You get targetted content whenever one of your sources updates. If you have any form of affiliate links on the site it's deemed as commercial. If you can make money off the site in any way, it's a commercial site. You'll be surprised, surfers will even call your aggregator a paysite. The easy solution is just not to use feeds where there will be a problem.

True Kristian

Okay, but then here is the standard question: Google and other search engines display a snippet, sample, or a lead in link to my site, they have ads on their site, but they are apparently covered by fair use?

Alex