Is it legal for me to "steal" Website Content in this way?

[AndrewX5]

Hello everyone,

I'd like to ask 2 quick questions to kindly get some legal advice on this.

Please look at these pages first, because it can sum up what I'm asking about:

Salaries:
http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Microsoft-Salaries-E1651.htm
Reviews:
http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Microsoft-Reviews-E1651.htm
Jobs:
http://www.glassdoor.com/Jobs/Microsoft-Jobs-E1651.htm


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So my Questions are:

Q1) Can I take Website Statistics/Information, and use them on my own Website?
This collected Information is not written/submitted by the "Website Owners" themselves, but by registered members of that site.

If you looked at the first link I shared, you should see figures like this:
Average: $81,032
Range: $71k -$99k

This is Data that members submitted on company salaries.

Is it legally ok for me to use this Information on my own website I'm making?
What can they do to force me to remove it, or get me in trouble with the Law?


Q2) Can I take Use submitted comments and use it on my Own Website?
I understand that the Copyright ownership of that comment should belong to the person who wrote it.
So if they came along to my site one day, and ask me to remove a particular comment of theirs, I would have to.

But can the hosting website force me to remove the "copied" user comments I may put on my own site?

(the other 2 links will show comment "Review" examples)

So in short, what can happen to me if I take the Company reviews from such a website, and placed it on my own?

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This is from the TOS of that site:

http://www.glassdoor.com/about/terms.htm

Ownership; Use of Services

Ownership; Use of Services
Your Grant. We do not claim ownership in any Content that you upload, provide, make available, or otherwise transfer (“post&#8221 on the Services, but to be able to legally provide our Users with the Services, we have to have certain rights to use such Content in connection with the Services, as set forth below. In return, we also grant you certain use rights as set forth in Section 2.2 to the Content that we (or our licensors) own and use to provide the Services to you and other Users. By posting any Content on the Services, you hereby grant to us an unrestricted, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, license (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) to use, copy, perform, display, create derivative works of, and distribute such Content in any and all media (now known or later developed) throughout the world. No compensation will be paid with respect to the Content that you post through the Services. You should only post Content to the Services that you are comfortable sharing with others under the terms and conditions set forth herein.

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Can anyone shed some light on this situation for me?

Thanks allot!

 

[Isis1]

US law only.

what is the name of your state?

 

[AndrewX5]

Hi, I'm not Located in USA.

I'm from a Caribbean Country.

So that means Copyright don't apply to me right?

I remember that Piratebay gets away with "murder"...

Just because they are not from USA.

 

[Isis1]

Hi, I'm not Located in USA.

I'm from a Caribbean Country.

So that means Copyright don't apply to me right?

I remember that Piratebay gets away with "murder"...

Just because they are not from USA.

it means you have to follow the law within your country.

 

[AndrewX5]

Ahh ok, makes sense.

I will have to try to check that out then, I don't know if we have many internet laws at all.

Ok, but our Company Servers are Hosted in the USA.
So what now then?

This should have some sort of affect on me right?

My servers are in Houston Texas I believe.

 

[jsmith416]

Your hosting company won't care unless the content is illegal (i.e. child pornography) or they get a nasty letter threatening legal action if it's not taken down.

 

[The Occultist]

I remember that Piratebay gets away with "murder"...

Just because they are not from USA.

Not quite right. You should read further into that situation to understand what exactly happened. Actually, it has been rather interesting keeping up with those proceedings.

All countries part of the Berne Convention (that includes you) are required to protect IP interests from the other nations in the Convention, but they may still do so using the related laws that already exist. This means: the US courts would have to respect a copyright issue raised by somebody in Germany, but the US is only obligated to enforce the copyright using whatever related US laws exist, and do not need to use the laws from Germany. That is why we cannot help you.

 

[AndrewX5]

Hi everyone!
Thanks much for taking your time to reply to me on this situation.

@ jsmith416
I understand the Point that you made, but it still didn't address the Question.

I can see that someone may not "care" about what we do,
BUT
what if they do care? and Want to take action?

I'm trying to find out, what exactly stops us from doing as i described, is it illegal at all (by US law), etc...

Nothing should be taken for granted when Law and Court comes into play I believe.


@ The Occultist
Yup I know I did not explain the story in detail...
I read the entire situation before already.
I just tried to make a quick reference without wasting time.

Basically, Piratebay is a Swedish Company,
and US law does not apply there,
So they are violating no Swedish law on their website,
They can get away with what they are doing.


About what you said with the "Berne Convention", thanks that is useful information.
That would mean that some form of US laws would apply to me right?
Especially since we are Hosted in USA anyway.


"That is why we cannot help you."
I didn't get that part,

My Questions were still never really addressed...

So, starting over here:

Imagine I was a US Citizen, and all US Copyright laws etc... applied to me.

Does my Questions (Q1 & Q2) have any legal conflict?

Eventually we plan to set up office in a major country some day, it may well be USA, we don't know yet. So lets take things from that perspective if it's alright with you.

Please read my actual Questions again in detail.

Thanks for all your time and help!

 

[divgradcurl]

Basically, Piratebay is a Swedish Company,
and US law does not apply there,
So they are violating no Swedish law on their website,
They can get away with what they are doing.

Just a minor point here, while you are right that the Piratebay folks were not subject to U.S. law, they were sentenced to prison sentences for violating criminal statutes under Swedish copyright law. See The Pirate Bay Guilty; Jail for File-Sharing Foursome | Threat Level | Wired.com

Imagine I was a US Citizen, and all US Copyright laws etc... applied to me.

Does my Questions (Q1 & Q2) have any legal conflict?

Eventually we plan to set up office in a major country some day, it may well be USA, we don't know yet. So lets take things from that perspective if it's alright with you.

Please read my actual Questions again in detail.

Thanks for all your time and help!

You are not resident in the U.S., and are therefore outside of the jurisdictional reach of the U.S. Court system. Until you move to the U.S. and are subject to the jurisdiction of U.S. Courts, you need to concern yourself with the law in your own country.

 

[AndrewX5]

@ divgradcurl

Hi, thanks for your reply!

Wow I never knew that those guys of Piratebay got thrown into Prison!
I see that the article was posted on "April 17, 2009" so this is still a bit recent.

So are the guys actually in Prison right now? or they won the case? How come Piratebay is up and running still? nothing seems different to me.

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You are not resident in the U.S., and are therefore outside of the jurisdictional reach of the U.S. Court system. Until you move to the U.S. and are subject to the jurisdiction of U.S. Courts, you need to concern yourself with the law in your own country.

Ok I understand what you say here,
but IF I do eventually move to USA which may be probable,
that that would mean, the U.S. law would be applied to me at that time.
Not so?

I wouldn't want to put myself in a messy situation when I get there, and need to remove all the content on my site later on.

It is better to put things in place and be prepared for the future.

I hope you understand what I'm explaining.

So please, can someone give me an Answer for my asked questions, based on the idea that if I "were/will be" in the U.S. what should happen to me?

(I understand that I would need to learn more about the Laws of my own country also).

I would rather not be breaking any Law whatsoever, even if it does not apply to me or my country right now.

If no one is willing to attempt to give me an answer on this at this Forum, no worries, I'll try asking this elsewhere.

Thanks again for your time.