| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : DECEMBER 13, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| BUSINESS WEEK E.BIZ -- PERSPECTIVE
Copyright on the Net: Who 'Owns' a Price? The law shouldn't interfere when sites take shopping data from each other One of the great strengths of the Internet is that it provides a wealth of information. One of the great weaknesses of the Net is that it provides too much information. That paradox is creating a legal controversy that will leave an indelible imprint on our ability to use the Web productively and companies' ability to use the Web profitably. I'm concerned that neither goal will be well served. Two new disputes are worth examining. First up is mySimon.com vs. Priceman.com. Both sites rely on software that sifts through the Web to do comparison shopping. MySimon is a first-generation version of these so-called shopping bots. If you want to buy a Pioneer compact-disk player, it will search the Web to compare prices at 27 stereo merchants and locate the cheapest one. Priceman takes bots to a new level. It simply plugs your request into mySimon and about a dozen of the site's competitors to provide a much richer list of choices. By aggregating the search process, Priceman becomes what in Net lingo is called a metasite. This is a clearly valuable service. But mySimon understandably isn't too happy about it. It recently sued Priceman Inc. for copyright infringement. The second battle worth watching is eBay vs. AuctionWatch.com. If you are looking for memorabilia or anything else that is the standard stuff of online auctions, eBay has established itself as the destination of choice. But as imitators have sprung up, AuctionWatch has launched a service that searches a host of auctions to find the best prices. In November, eBay programmed its computers to block AuctionWatch. LITTLE HELP. Is there anything wrong with the concept of metasites? Legally speaking, probably not. Copyright only protects written material that is ''original'' and ''creative.'' While courts haven't directly addressed the issue, it won't be easy for sites such as mySimon.com or eBay to argue that the price and product information they use meets the originality test. ''Where the data being offered is simply postings from other people's Web sites, it would be hard for a company to claim a copyright violation,'' says Stuart Levi, a New York intellectual-property lawyer. Naturally, there are likely to be exceptions to this general rule. If a site adds something to the information others have provided, say by offering an analysis of Pioneer CD players, then there is a better chance of pressing a successful copyright claim against a metasite. And Congress is considering a bill increasing intellectual-property protection for electronic databases. If passed, it would strengthen the type of copyright claim brought by mySimon Inc. In the meantime, copyright law doesn't offer much assistance to companies whose Web content is being snatched by metasites. Is that fair? On the one hand, it doesn't seem right to give someone such as AuctionWatch.com a free ride on other people's work. On the other hand, eBay and mySimon are also vulnerable to the same criticism: Much of their content is generated by others. That's why many people oppose laws penalizing Web sites for linking to information elsewhere. ''What has made the medium so explosive is that it gives people the ability to link one site to another,'' says David Post, a cyberlaw specialist at Temple University Law School. That's something ''the law should not interfere with.'' A better approach for companies victimized by aggregators is technological self-help--as eBay is doing. If that fails, a company can try requiring viewers to sign a contract blocking them from republication of the data. But a blanket rule against metasites would be a mistake--and contradicts the spirit of the Net. By MIKE FRANCE, michael_france@ebiz.businessweek.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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