Is the reading of website meta tags generally prohibited? Problem: I would like to create a plugin for my website. This Plugin makes it possible to recognise a shared link in a comment field. Afterwards the plugin fetch the link and scrape the meta data of the shared source (link). After successfully scraping the Link will reformat to a nice &quot;Card&quot; with thumbnail and description text (Note 1). A kind of card instead of just a link. Or better the way Google does it. Question: Is it allowed to &quot;scrape&quot; metadata without prior consent of the website operator? My thoughts on this: Since I am only scraping the metadata by machine and it is there to be used by search engine bots, social platforms anyway, that one is allowed to do it. Note 1 : (only pages that are public and explicitly allowed to be crawled by search engines). Update Example for better understanding Below you can see an example of the metadata I read from a page. Below you can see the editing on my page with my own style. &lt;title&gt;Kanada: Abgeschossenes Flugobjekt hatte zylindrische Form - DER SPIEGEL&lt;/title&gt; &lt;meta charset=&quot;utf-8&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;viewport&quot; content=&quot;width=device-width,initial-scale=1,user-scalable=no&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;MSSmartTagsPreventParsing&quot; content=&quot;true&quot;&gt; &lt;meta http-equiv=&quot;imagetoolbar&quot; content=&quot;no&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;apple-itunes-app&quot; content=&quot;app-id=424881832&quot;&gt; &lt;link rel=&quot;manifest&quot; href=&quot;https://www.spiegel.de/public/spon/json/manifest.json&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;theme-color&quot; content=&quot;#e64415&quot; media=&quot;(prefers-color-scheme: light)&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;theme-color&quot; content=&quot;#D03D12&quot; media=&quot;(prefers-color-scheme: dark)&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;google-site-verification&quot; content=&quot;lwpSnwoyvMkHS9nHmLBZuYOashAHfooOHSHeA_KS7ek&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;robots&quot; content=&quot;index, follow, noarchive, noodp, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;Googlebot-News&quot; content=&quot;index, follow&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;copyright&quot; content=&quot;DER SPIEGEL, Hamburg, Germany&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;email&quot; content=&quot;spiegel_online@spiegel.de&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;author&quot; content=&quot;DER SPIEGEL&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;date&quot; content=&quot;2023-02-12T07:08:39+01:00&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;last-modified&quot; content=&quot;2023-02-12T07:08:39+01:00&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;locale&quot; content=&quot;de_DE&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;description&quot; content=&quot;Es war innerhalb von zwei Tagen das zweite Objekt im Luftraum über Nordamerika, das von US-Kampfjets abgeschossen wurde. Nun gibt es erste Angaben der kanadischen Regierung, wie der Flugkörper aussah.&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;news_keywords&quot; content=&quot;Ausland, USA, Kanada, Justin Trudeau, Volksrepublik China, Spionage, Luftfahrt&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;twitter:card&quot; content=&quot;summary_large_image&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;twitter:site&quot; content=&quot;@derspiegel&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;twitter:title&quot; content=&quot;Erste Erkenntnisse der kanadischen Regierung: Abgeschossenes Flugobjekt hatte zylindrische Form&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;twitter:creator&quot; content=&quot;@derspiegel&quot;&gt; &lt;meta name=&quot;twitter:image&quot; content=&quot;https://cdn.prod.www.spiegel.de/images/c431237d-0187-4cc6-95f6-c3bc8c12ede1_w1280_r1.77_fpx59.37_fpy50.jpg&quot;&gt; &lt;meta property=&quot;og:title&quot; content=&quot;Erste Erkenntnisse der kanadischen Regierung: Abgeschossenes Flugobjekt hatte zylindrische Form&quot;&gt; &lt;meta property=&quot;og:type&quot; content=&quot;article&quot;&gt; &lt;meta property=&quot;og:url&quot; content=&quot;https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/kanada-abgeschossenes-flugobjekt-hatte-zylindrische-form-a-8134d1f8-6259-46d3-b1bc-0de4446380fc&quot;&gt; &lt;meta property=&quot;og:image&quot; content=&quot;https://cdn.prod.www.spiegel.de/images/c431237d-0187-4cc6-95f6-c3bc8c12ede1_w1280_r1.77_fpx59.37_fpy50.jpg&quot;&gt; &lt;meta property=&quot;og:description&quot; content=&quot;Es war innerhalb von zwei Tagen das zweite Objekt im Luftraum über Nordamerika, das von US-Kampfjets abgeschossen wurde. Nun gibt es erste Angaben der kanadischen Regierung, wie der Flugkörper aussah.&quot;&gt; And now a screenshot of my page where the metadata is displayed. What I store in my database? The content from the metatags: title, description, author, sourcelink, tags and the link to the thumbnail.
You are asking the wrong question. It should be: When you have downloaded the content and metadata, what are you allowed to do with it and what is forbidden? Somebody owns the copyright to the text and images in the thumbnail. This could be the operator of the third party website, or that site has licensed the content from yet another party. You haven't licensed it from anybody. So you can watch the content in accordance with the TOS, and your computer can evaluate the metadata to do it, but you cannot display it on your own site. Details will differ between jurisdictions, of course. You might also be held responsible for illegal content in the thumb you generate. Follow-up: There seems to be some question of what 'thumbnail' and 'card' mean in this context. This answer assumes a somewhat scaled-down representation of the content of the entire page, not just a collection of actual metadata like content length and expiry.
The text and content (including all diagrams and illustrations) of the 1847 work (and of any other work published in 1847) are in the public domain in the US and everywhere in the world. You may freely use them verbatim or in any modified form that you wish. You are not even legally required to credit your source, although not to do so would be unethical, in my view. The version by Nicholas Rougeux that is linked to in the question has the licensing statement: Posters and website design are copyright Nicholas Rougeux. All other content and diagrams are under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA 4.0). This will not apply to any content copied from the 1847 version, of course. You may use any of the new content and diagrams so released, or make and use derivative works based on those elements, provided that you comply with the CC BY-SA 4.0 license. This has a number of provisions, but the major ones are that you must release your work under the same license, must acknowledge your source work, and must not impose any additional conditions or restrictions on users of your derived work. These are spelled out in sections 3.a and 3.b of the license (linked above). Please read the full terms if you intend to use this license. If this procedure will satisfy your purpose, you do not need any further permission from Nicholas Rougeux, nor to pay any fees or royalties to him. If you do not choose to place your work under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license, then you must not use the diagrams from Rougeux's version, nor modified versions directly based on them, nor an overall design clearly and directly based on the original design of that version, unless you secure permission from Rougeux (or the current copyright holder of Rougeux's version, whoever that may be). Given that Rougeux chose to release under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license, he may well be unwilling to grant permission under a different license, but that is his choice to make. Exception: in the US, you may use content from the Rougeux version to the limited extent permitted by fair use. This is not likely to cover the use of all or a large number of diagrams, particularly for a competing version of the same base work. Without specific information on how much content you would be using from that version, and how similar it would be to the original, no one can reliably determine if fair use would apply or not, but fair use is most likely to apply when a strictly limited amount of content is reused, and particularly when it is used for a different purpose than the original. Also, fair use is a strictly US legal content, and a work that might be held to be fair use by a US court might be considered an infringement by the courts of some other counties. Other countries have their own exceptions to copyright which are different in scope and terms from fair use. Many of them are significantly narrower. Note that a work posted to the internet is in effect published in all countries, and a copyright holder might choose to sue in any country s/he pleases. US courts might well enforce such a judgement even if it would not have been the judgement of a US court. Rogeux (or any other creator of a new edition) can have no copyright in elements already present in Byrne's 1847 work. Any similarity to Rogeux's work that is because of a similarity to Byrne's 1847 work is not copyright infringement. But any new elements introduced by Rogeux (or anyone else), including the manner of adding interactivity to a diagram, may well be protected by copyright (although the idea of having an interactive version of the diagram will not be). Any new or significantly modified text or diagrams introduced in a later version will be protected. As to any other versions of the 1847 &quot;Byrne's Euclid&quot; that may have been published, the publishers gain no copyright over the original 1847 work or any of its elements, including text, diagrams, or color scheme. Provided you do not use any original content newly introduced in such editions, you do not need to secure any permission from, or pay any fee to, the copyright holders of such editions. However, you may not use any such original content, or modified versions clearly based on such original content, without permission, unless an exception to copyright, such as fair use, applies. All that I said above about fair use would then apply. A copyright holder may grant or refuse permission to use a protected work or create a derivative work on any terms that s/he chooses, and charge any fee or royalty rate s/he thinks proper. Lack of response to a request for permission must be treated as if the response was &quot;No&quot;.
What would be the legal validity of this behaviour? Your changes to the browser source of the website contract or license of Terms of Service (TOS) - essentially a "click-wrap" license - before agreeing to it means nothing in a legal sense, other than to void the contract. The other party (the website) can't possibly agree to those contract changes without them being submitted as contractual changes and agreeing to them, if they did agree to them. That's basic contract law. That website TOS probably has a clause that says that if you don't agree to the TOS in full, as written, without modifications, you can't use the website. And the TOS may also say that they reserve the right to prevent you from using the site by closing your account or even blocking your access. Your "witness" to the contract changes is meaningless, as your witness is not a party to the contract. And any witness to the fact that you have changed the terms of the TOS before agreeing to it would work against you in a civil proceeding as proof of your attempt at modifying the contract.
If you do, you will probably be faced with a lawsuit. If the program did something that they don't do, it might be okay (but hire a lawyer to be sure). Perhaps a plumbing app would be safe. They (Meta) do state that Meta is one of their trademarks, and you can verify that here. That means that they have the exclusive right to use the mark &quot;Meta&quot; in the particular spheres where they operate, namely G &amp; S: Identification verification services; Online social networking services; Personal concierge services for others comprising making requested personal arrangements and reservations and providing customer-specific information to meet individual needs; Providing access to computer databases and online searchable databases in the fields of social networking; Social introduction and networking services; Social networking services related to sports, fitness, and coaching activities provided through a community website online and other computer and electronic communication networks; User verification services; Social introduction, networking and dating services as well as Computer hardware; Application programming interface (API) for software which facilitates online services for data retrieval, upload, download, access and management; Computer peripheral devices; Virtual, augmented, and mixed reality software for use in enabling computers, mobile devices, to provide virtual reality experiences; Software for integrating electronic data with real world environments for the purposes of entertainment, education, communicating; Virtual reality computer hardware; Virtual reality software for use in enabling computers, mobile devices, to provide virtual reality experiences; Motion tracking sensors for virtual reality technology; Motion tracking sensors for augmented reality technology; Digital media streaming devices; Wearable computing devices comprised primarily of software and display screens for connection to computers, mobile devices, and in order to enable virtual reality and augmented reality world experiences; Software for tracking motion in, visualizing, manipulating, viewing, and displaying augmented and virtual reality experiences; Software, firmware and hardware for use in visual, voice, audio, motion, eye and gesture tracking and recognition; Hardware and software for operating sensor devices; Electronic sensor devices, cameras, projectors, and microphones for gesture, facial, and voice detection, capture and recognition; Hardware and software for detecting objects, user gestures and commands; Wireless computer peripherals; Computer software for modifying photographs, images and audio, video, and audio-visual content with photographic filters and augmented reality (AR) effects, namely, graphics, animations, text, drawings, geotags, metadata tags, hyperlinks; Computer software, downloadable computer software and mobile application software for facilitating interaction and communication between humans and AI (artificial intelligence) platforms, namely, bots, virtual agents and virtual assistants; Application programming interface (API) software for allowing data retrieval, upload, access and management; Software for organizing images, video, and audio-visual content using metadata tags; Application programming interface (API) for use in developing AI (artificial intelligence) platforms, namely, bots, virtual agents and virtual assistants; Computer software for sending and receiving electronic messages, graphics, images, audio and audio visual content via the internet and communication networks; Downloadable software, namely, instant messaging software, file sharing software, communications software for electronically exchanging data, audio, video images and graphics via computer, mobile, wireless, and communication networks; Computer software for personal information management, and data synchronization software; Computer software for use in facilitating voice over internet protocol (VOIP) calls, phone calls, video calls, text messages, instant message; Communication software and communication computer hardware for providing access to the Internet; Electronic display screens; Computer peripherals for remotely accessing and transmitting data; Computer hardware for displaying data and video; Computer peripherals for displaying data and video; Software to view virtual images in creating augmented reality; Computer software for setting up, configuring, operating and controlling wearable devices, computers, and computer peripherals; Computer software for accessing, monitoring, searching, displaying, reading, recommending, sharing, organizing, and annotating news, sports, weather, commentary, and other information, content from periodicals, blogs, and websites, and other text, data, graphics, images, audio, video, and multimedia content; Computer software for accessing, browsing and searching online databases; Computer software for accessing, monitoring, searching, displaying, reading, recommending, sharing, organizing, and annotating news, sports, weather, commentary, and other information, content from periodicals, blogs, and websites, and other text, data, graphics, images, audio, video, and multimedia content; Computer software for controlling the operation of audio and video devices; Computer software for creating, editing, uploading, downloading, accessing, viewing, posting, displaying, tagging, blogging, streaming, linking, annotating, indicating sentiment about, commenting on, embedding, transmitting, and sharing or otherwise providing electronic media or information via computer the internet and communication networks; Computer software for integrating electronic data with real world environments for the purposes of entertainment, communicating, and social networking; Computer software for modifying and enabling transmission of images, audio, audio visual and video content and data; Computer software for modifying photographs, images and audio, video, and audio-visual content with photographic filters and virtual reality, mixed reality and augmented reality effects, namely, graphics, animations, text, drawings, geotags, metadata tags, hyperlinks; Computer software for processing images, graphics, audio, video, and text; Computer software for sending and receiving electronic messages, graphics, images, audio and audio visual content via computer the internet and communication networks; Computer software for sending and receiving electronic messages, alerts, notifications and reminders; Computer software for social networking and interacting with online communities; Computer software for the collection, managing, editing, organizing, modifying, transmission, sharing, and storage of data and information; Computer software for the redirection of messages, Internet e-mail, and/or other data to one or more electronic wearable wireless communication devices from a data store on or associated with a personal computer or a server; Computer software for wireless content, data and information delivery; Computer software to enable accessing, displaying, editing, linking, sharing and otherwise providing electronic media and information via the internet and communications networks; Computer software to enable development, assessment, testing, and maintenance of mobile software applications for portable electronic communication devices, namely, mobile phones, smartphones, handheld computers and computer tablets; Computer software to enhance the audio-visual capabilities of multimedia applications, namely, for the three-dimensional rendering of graphics, still images and moving pictures provided as updates for or in combination with head-mounted display screen devices; Computer software, downloadable computer software and mobile application software for creating, managing and accessing groups within virtual communities; Computer software, namely, an application providing social networking functionalities; Computer software, namely, an interpretive interface for facilitating interaction between humans and machines; Downloadable computer software for finding content and content publishers, and for subscribing to content; Downloadable computer software for viewing and interacting with a feed of images, audio, audio-visual and video content and associated text and data; Gesture recognition software; Software for detecting objects, user gestures and commands; Software for operating sensor devices; Software to view virtual images in creating virtual, augmented and mixed reality; Interactive entertainment software; Location-aware computer software, downloadable computer software and mobile application software for searching, determining and sharing locations; Messaging software; Mixed reality software; Mixed reality software for interactive entertainment; Mixed reality software for navigating a mixed reality environment; Mixed reality software for object tracking, motion control and content visualization; Social assistant software; Software and firmware for enabling electronic devices to share data and communicate with each other; Software development tools; Software driver programs for electronic devices for enabling computer hardware and electronic devices to communicate with each other; Software for advertisers to communicate and interact with online communities; Software for alerts, messages, emails, and reminders, and for recording, organizing, transmitting, manipulating, reviewing, and receiving text, data, audio, image and digital files and display screens; Software for creating and managing social media profiles and user accounts; Software for creating, editing, uploading, downloading, accessing, viewing, posting, displaying, tagging, blogging, streaming, linking, annotating, indicating sentiment about, commenting on, embedding, transmitting, and sharing or otherwise providing electronic media or information via computer and communication networks; Software for creating, managing and accessing groups within virtual communities; Software for creating, managing, and interacting with an online community; Software for integrating electronic data with real world environments for the purposes of entertainment, education, communicating, and social networking; Software for modifying and enabling transmission of images, audio, audio visual and video content and data; Software for processing images, graphics, audio, video, and text; Software for social networking; Software for streaming multimedia entertainment content; Software and firmware for use in visual, voice, audio, motion, eye and gesture tracking and recognition; Software, namely, an interpretive interface for facilitating interaction between humans and machines; Video display software; Computer software, firmware and hardware for use in visual, voice, audio, motion, eye and gesture tracking and recognition; Computer hardware and software for operating sensor devices; Computer hardware and software for detecting objects, user gestures and commands; Computer software driver programs for electronic devices for enabling computer hardware and electronic devices to communicate with each other; Cameras; Wireless computer peripherals; Video receivers; Sensors for monitoring physical movements and dozens of other also-registered areas.
Copyright law regulates copying of protected material. In the US, there are no laws that specifically prohibit reading anything. It may be illegal to be in possession of something (classified material), but if it is legal to be in possession, it is legal to read. (Do not confuse "read" with "read aloud to an audience" a.k.a. perform, which is a separate copyright protection). It is not illegal to be in possession of material that was copied without permission.
This issue touches upon two distinct GDPR rights: Art 15 right to access: you have a right to receive a copy of all personal data concerning you that are undergoing processing (including storage). Access may only be denied where this would “adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others.” Art 20 right to data portability: if processing is being carried out by automated means, and processing is based on certain legal bases (consent or contract, but not legitimate interest), then you have a right to receive a copy of your personal data in a machine-readable format, for personal data that you have provided to the data controller. Whereas the right to access is fairly straightforward, the right to data portability applies under much more narrow conditions. Basically, it's a right that you can download any data that you've uploaded so that you can move to a different service. Google Takeout is primarily concerned with your right to data portability, and provides your data in a machine-readable format. Any photos that you've uploaded to Google Photos, you'll be able to download. Thus, it could be technically compliant to exclude information that they've inferred about your personal data, such as image-recognition results. Such results would still be personal data under the GDPR definition of the consent, and would be covered by your right to access. Google might argue that you already have access to this data through the web interface. In my opinion the GDPR clearly requires the data controller to provide a “copy”, i.e. the data in some durable form – not merely access through a web interface. Whereas your question is specifically about Google, the same issue applies to other services as well. E.g. Ruben Verborgh has an interesting blog series on trying to get access to all their data from Facebook, though unsuccessful so far. Similar to your scenario, Facebook offers a download for personal data but does not include all personal data in this download. In one of the documents provided by Facebook in the course of the exchange, they note that they allow access to photo tags through the web interface, but do not include this in downloaded data – without providing further justification.
All the CC licenses permit anyone to use the licensed content, and to make copies of it for others. Some of them permit using it for commercial purposes, others (the ones including the -NC- clause) do not. Some CC licenses permit creating modified versions of the original work (derivative works), others (the ones including the -ND- clause) do not. I do not know of any standard license which allows users to create and distribute derivative works, but not to distribute the original. The license used by Project Gutenberg permits re-use and re-distribution, but if a fee is charged beyond recouping expenses requires the removal of the PG name and logo. One problem is that if derivative works are allowed, this would include works which are only trivial modifications to the original, which would have the effect of allowing distribution of the original. If the main concern is about commercial sales, possibly a CC-NC-SA license would effectively serve the purpose? That allows redistribution, including of derivative works, but forbids commercial reuse or distribution without separate permission, and requires all redistribution to be under the same license. Otherwise a new license for this situation might have to be created. It is often a good idea to have the assistance of a lawyer with IP expertise in creating a new license, or the wording chosen may have unexpected effects or include unintended contradictions. Or one could simply place a basic copyright notice along with text such as "Modified versions may be created only with permission from the author. Request permission at work-permisisons@example.com". However, if the work proves popular, there might be a large volume of requests.
Not having immediate access to the source doesn't preclude a finding of copyright infringement. If you have seen the source material, subconscious infringement can happen. However, in this example, both the short phrases doctrine and the merger doctrine would likely prevent the is_prime function from having copyright. Words and short phrases are not individually copyrightable, so the name would be free to take. Regarding the implementing code, if it isn't an exact copy (i.e. copy and paste), courts will apply the abstraction-filtration-comparision test. They may find that you took the selection and arrangement of instructions from the original source, albiet using different names. That selection and arrangement would probably be considered a substantial similarity and, if not for the merger doctrine, infringement. However, given the limited number of ways to express the prime-detection algorithm means that the expression of that idea has merged with the idea, and thus is not protected by copyright. (Or in some jurisdictions, merger is a defence to infringement rather than a bar to copyrightability).