AS-IS: Ecommerce, Internet, Software & Technology Law and Contracts

This month's Wired magazine has a perceptive article about so-called "data scraping" or "screen scraping" practices.  It discusses the practical aspects of data scraping (such as IP address banning or blocking as a practical remedy to prevent scraping), use of cease and desist letters, and use of properly-licensed web services application programming interfaces (API's) as a way to control such practices.

The article does not provide any detail about underlying legal theories or court cases to prevent data scraping, such as those based on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) or court cases concerning unfair competition.

Source: Should Web Giants Let Startups Use the Information They Have About You?, by Josh McHugh. 

Posted by Harry at 03:55 PM | Permalink

Black Duck Software, a provider of open source compliance software, has just closed a new round of financing, according to TheDeal.com.  Black Duck's products are used to locate open source code used in a company's software.

Douglas Levin, president and CEO of Black Duck, said in the article, "We have crossed the point at which companies are reluctant to use open source." 

The article says that Black Duck has seen particularly fast growth -- 849% growth in the number of customer accounts in 2006 -- thanks to merger activity, with its potential to expose an acquirer's liabilities from the target's use of open-source code.

Palamida is another player in the open source compliance software arena.

Posted by Harry at 02:49 PM | Permalink

Knowledge@Wharton has an interesting perspective on new softwawre business models, in Why Software Business Models of the Future Probably Won't Come in a Box.

Kartik Hosanagar, an operations and information management professor at Wharton, believes that "a hybrid business model -- consisting of parts of traditional licensing, on-demand, ad supported and even open source" will emerge and be the "winning model of the future". 

My take: I generally agree.  I supported multiple hybrid Software-Internet business models when I worked at Intuit.  But this transition won't be easy.  Just as Google Adsense, Craig's List free classifieds, and the general move to performance-based marketing on the internet have confounded the newspaper industry, there are going to be wrenching changes ahead for business people who can't broaden their perspective. 

And, that doesn't even begin to raise the equally significant mindset change needed to cope with mobility (an all-the-time, everywhere wireless mobile environment).

Posted by Harry at 01:56 PM | Permalink