jn wrote:
Is it illegal for me to set up a site where people can pay to be notified if
another site changes?
Let's say I use PHP to watch all sites in a webring/network/whatever...can
people pay me to be notified when those sites change?
IANAL, but what I would watch out for are:
1. does the website already offer *paid* update notification? If they do
then you are setting yourself up in competition. Not necessarily a bar
to you doing it, competition is protected by law usually, but could make
them take notice of you. If they offer free notification then I can't
see why they'd complain.
2. be careful about their bandwidth usage. This is the important one. If
you are scanning their whole site at 30 second intervals (say) then they
would have good cause to prosecute you for abuse of service. They could
also note this and ban your IP address killing your service.
Essentially what you are suggesting is a form of advertising for the
websites you monitor, paid for by a small(?) subscription to you. As
long as you can demonstrate benefits to the website owners then they are
likely to support you. If you start leeching their websites and charging
big bucks then you are certain to be hassled.