Meta Description: Are you wondering how to scrape without stealing? This guide on web scraping will help you scrape without violating intellectual property rights.
In the past, valuable assets of any company were the physical assets such as buildings, machinery, vehicles, workers, and all other materials used in a company’s production and manufacturing process.
As the years went by, the forms of assets changed. But today, the most important asset of a company is its intellectual property.
Intellectual property includes a patent, an idea, a trade secret, a copyright, etc. Every company needs to go a long way to deal with its protection. Because many companies often become a victim of these infringement actions.
Web scraping allows you to reach millions of websites in your desired niche. The process helps you quickly determine whether someone is trying to sell or counterfeit your protected property.
How Does Web Scraping Work?
Web scraping is the process of extracting data manually in the form of copying and pasting or even in an automated way by software bots. They generally collect information from the web or the public profiles of real users.
However, data is scraped for scientific analysis, research, archival use, or other specific purposes. The process initially starts with acquiring the page. Once they acquire and download the page, they proceed to scrape website data.
Web scraping can be operated using various techniques. But the two main ways are manual and automated web scraping.
Manual Web Scraping
Manual web scraping involves the old copy-pasting method from different websites. The process takes time and human resources to collect data. It guarantees you acquire the necessary and relevant data.
This method was very popular in the past. But after the introduction of plagiarism checker tools, it has become punishable by law.
Automated Web Scraping
Different Methods are available for automated scraping. Some of them are listed here –
HTML Parsing
The HTML parsing technique involves extracting relevant information using the page’s HTML code. For conducting quick and efficient web scraping, JavaScript is also required.
DOM Parsing
The Document Object Model analyzes an HTML or XML page structure as a tree. Fraudsters use this technique to get a deeper view of a page structure and find easy paths for scraping the information.
Computer Vision Analysis
Bots use this analysis technique to pinpoint the crucial parts of the website that they are willing to scrap and then extract the necessary information. This method can analyze videos and images, recognize handwriting and read the text in images.
The legality of Web Scraping
‘Is web scraping legal or not?’ this question can come to your mind. The legality of web scraping generally depends on the software bots, the intention of the scraping, and various other circumstances. Sometimes the information is crawled with good intentions and sometimes with bad intentions.
When Is Web Scraping Legal?
When any bot scrapes publicly available information, then web scraping is legal. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that a scraper has free access to scrape from any website. Because of the copyright factor, not all the data can be used for commercial purposes without permission.
Below are some examples where scraping activities are considered legal –
- Real Estate Companies – Using web scraping, they can fill their property databases quickly and efficiently.
- Price Comparison – Some companies use web scraping to gather data from other websites. They then check the competitors’ prices and slightly cut their product’s price to gain a competitive advantage.
- Industry Statistics – Industries have thousands of companies. When an industry requires statistical analysis of companies, scraping company information is the most efficient and fastest way to prepare the analysis.
When Is Web Scraping Illegal?
Web scraping is a human activity. Like other human activities, scraping also has certain boundaries and limits. It will be legal as long as the scrapers work within those no-risk zones.
In web scraping, it is illegal to scrap intellectual property, personal data, and other confidential data. Or when bots scrap data for fraudulent activities.
Web Scraping and Intellectual Property Rights
Protected documents or contents are categorized as intellectual property. Under Intellectual Property Laws, such content is protected through trademark, copyright, design, etc.
Web scraping is a technique used for collecting data from third-party websites. It is most commonly used for gaining intelligence on doing business. Within a very short period, one can acquire competitors’ latest updates, products, prices, promotional strategies, etc.
However, using web scraping to scrape data may create infringement of the intellectual property of an individual or a company.
Is Scraping Copyrighted Content Legal?
Nowadays, almost everything on the internet, such as movies, music, news articles, social media posts, blog posts, logos, images, and digital graphics, are all protected by copyright.
When content is subject to copyright, it means you cannot copy this content without legal permission or the author’s consent.
Under the Fair Use doctrine, scraping copyrighted documents is permitted in the United States. If you meet the following criteria, you will be entitled to apply the Fair Use doctrine –
- Make sure the original content is converted in a meaningful way. Don’t republish the same content. For example – Transform the HTML code of a web page into a list of product names and prices.
- If you don’t require a substantial portion of original content, avoiding scraping is better.
- Don’t Scrape qualitative analysis of real estate agencies and publish it on your own website.
How to Protect Your Website from Being Scraped?
If web scraping is continuously used, it could damage the crawled websites.
One of the most common consequences can be the alteration of data. This eventually affects Google’s perception of the website regarding time per visit, bounce rate, etc.
So, if you want to protect your website, follow these tips.
1. Introduce Captchas
Introducing Captchas on your website helps you identify whether the visitor is a human user or a robot. So, using this approach, you can easily eliminate robot visitors.
2. Use Cookies or JavaScript
Inserting a complex JavaScript code on your web page, you can verify whether the user is a real browser or web scraper because most web scrapers do not do complicated calculations.
So, it’s a better idea to hire a professional and reliable JavaScript developer to install the complicated JavaScript code on your website.
3. Hide Data
To prevent web scrapers from scraping your data, it’s a good idea to publish it in a flash or image format; they can crawl only in text format.
4. Set Limits on Requests and Connections
By limiting the number of requests and connections to the page, you can alleviate scraper visits.
5. Block Known Malicious Sources
Identify the known malicious web scrapers and restrict their access by blocking IP addresses.
6. Constantly Update the HTML Tags
If you frequently change the tags; for instance – by introducing comments, spaces, new tags, etc. It allows you to prevent access to the same scraper from repeated attacks.
7. Use Fake Web Content
If you find that your content is getting plagiarized, publish fictitious content to discover and trap the attackers.
How to Protect Intellectual Property Rights
Every company or business has its intellectual property in the form of a symbol, brand name, logo, trading secret, idea, or even chemical formula.
When bots use a unique concept on a business without their permission, the business surely faces some loss. So, protecting intellectual property is ultimately one of the major tasks in the business world.
Here are some effective ways to protect intellectual property.
Apply for Copyrights, Patents, Trademarks, etc.
Through intellectual property rights and regulations, companies can protect their research and Development operation and core management of a business. It also allows a company to deter new entrants, obstruct competing goods, and pave the way for future markets.
IP rights come in various forms. And each right offers a protective right to sue if anyone infringes:
Copyright
It’s a type of intellectual property right that protects original artistic works or expressions of ownership. Thus, it can be licensed for artwork, testing, drawings, etc.
Patent
Patents are used to protect and register unique inventions unknown to the public. To obtain the patent, you must submit a patent application to the public, where technical information about that particular invention must be included.
Trademarks
Trademarks include names, logos, symbols, words, texts, signatures, figures, paintings, photographs, inscriptions, advertising, etc. It is commonly used for distinguishing a company’s products or services from others.
It also ensures that these goods and services belong to one owner and originate from one source. That’s why other firms cannot imitate the trademark.
Neighboring Rights
The neighboring rights are also known as related rights. It protects the work of music and film producers, performers, and broadcasting companies.
Design Rights
Design right includes textiles, wallpaper patterns, and the design of household items such as chairs, toys, alarm clocks, etc. It ensures the protection of the appearance of multi-dimensional products. Make sure the design is new and also registered for obtaining protection.
Trade Name Law
Trade Name law protects the name under which an enterprise is doing its business. When the enterprise starts operating, the trade name comes into being automatically. Registering the trade name in the commercial register is not required because the protection is regulated in the Trade Names Act.
Get the IP Infringers Punished
To maintain the security of patents and trademarks, you must enforce your rights. If anyone violates the law, you must report and charge the violators so they become punished.
Final Words
Web scraping can be legal or illegal, based on some factors, including tools and intention. If you have good intentions, you can even scrape intellectual property; however, you must differentiate between what is allowed and what isn’t allowed.
Preventing a web scraper’s attacks is a challenging task. Place high priority on enforcing different security policies. It helps you prevent any third party from harming your intellectual property.
A comprehensive data protection policy, including the company’s practices, protocol, and implication policy, can be your solution.
It includes what data must be secured, where to store it, who has access to it, and how it could be protected. The strategy also specifies how confidential data is transported and, when it is no longer in use, how to destroy it.
