Following Geoff Lane's original posting to this newsgroup about the
activities of Alexa, CLA has sent an email to Alexa pointing out their
possible infringement of the CLA website's copyright restrictions.
Although the issue of privacy and exclusion from the Alexa archiving (by
using robot exclusion tags in site HTML) both appear on the Alexa website
(alexa.com), we could find no mention of copyright.
Clearly, the possible implications of copyright infringement go far beyond
the CLA website and any person or organisation that puts material on the
Internet and protects it with copyright should be aware of Alexa's
activities.
For information, I have included below a copy of the entire email as sent to
Alexa.
Robert Dyer
CLA Webmaster
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I am writing having read the information available on your site with regards
Alexa's archiving of World Wide Web site pages.
I am advising you that all material stored on the CLA web server (all pages
beginning with the URL: http://www.cla.co.uk) is the copyright of the CLA
and restrictions on what you may do with this material are clearly stated.
In particular, I draw your attention to the restriction which states that
you may only store (CLA site) material on a computer or cache "for a period
not exceeding 30 days".
If you have archived material from the CLA website which is over 30 days old
then you are in breach of our copyright.
If this is the case then I am formally giving you notice to remove all CLA
site material over 30 days old from your site within 10 days of the date of
this message and to continue to do so in future unless otherwise advised in
writing by the CLA.
We are however willing to consider favourably any application for permission
to copy the material on our site for archival purposes, subject to
appropriate conditions to prevent misuse and/or misrepresentation.
I note from your website that you comply with the Robot exclusion standard.
However, this does not exonerate you from your responsibility to comply with
copyright laws. We have no objection to the principle of archiving of the
Web (indeed, it may prove to be a valuable service to the community); but
the cavalier approach to our intellectual property (and indeed that of every
other site which you archive without the
consent of the copyright holder) cannot be tolerated.
Please acknowledge receipt of this message and of your intentions with
respect to our copyright material.
I look forward to hearing from you shortly.
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ENDS
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