Blog homeInteresting news article over on the Register about how Ryanair (low cost airline) have claimed a court victory (Germany) against Vtours.
According to the article Ryanair have been awarded an injunction against Vtours because VTours were screen-scraping Ryanair’s website - and reselling the flights.
Struan Robertson, a technology lawyer with Pinsent Masons and editor of OUT-LAW.COM, said that the argument about breaching Ryanair’s terms and conditions is a weaker one than asserting infringement of copyright or database rights.
“The site that is being scraped might say that its terms and conditions forbid any form of scraping. The site that is doing the scraping might counter that those terms and conditions do not count because they are not incorporated into any contract between the parties,” he said. “It may be a fair argument if those terms of use are just an optional link like they are on Ryanair’s website.
“Arguing infringement of database rights might be a more powerful argument,” he said. “Websites can fit the definition of a database in these rules, which apply across Europe, though there is some uncertainty about the extent of the rights.”
Best hop over to The Register to read the article in full….
[Always a bid dodgy requoting a well known lawyer on this blog….. if I take too much text from the Register’s article I expect Mr Robertson would come down on me with a ton of bricks!]
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