Third-Party Content and Intellectual Property Policy

This Policy (the “Content Policy”) forms part of the ScrapeBadger Terms of Service (the “Terms”) and applies to all Customers. It also explains to rights holders, website operators and other third parties how ScrapeBadger handles content-related complaints. Capitalised terms have the meaning given in the Terms.

1. Our position

1.1 ScrapeBadger respects the intellectual-property and other rights of third parties and expects its customers to do the same. We do not permit, encourage or design the Services for infringing use, and we act on substantiated complaints as described below.

1.2 ScrapeBadger is an independent technical tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any Source. Source names, logos and trademarks appear in our Services, Documentation and marketing solely to describe the platform with which a feature is designed to work, and remain the property of their owners.

1.3 ScrapeBadger does not select the content that is retrieved, does not initiate Requests, does not review or curate Output, does not host or store Output, does not create datasets from Output, and does not sell or otherwise exploit Output. Where Output refers to images or other media, the Services return references to the media at its original location on the Source; we do not host copies.

1.4 The Services are designed to retrieve only content that a Source makes available to the general public without authentication (Terms, clause 4.3).

1.5 In addition to the notice-and-action procedure below, ScrapeBadger takes the following measures to prevent misuse: it manages request rates to Sources on its own infrastructure; it maintains a list of restricted Sources and can block Sources, domains, endpoints and request patterns for individual Customers or for all Customers; it may require Customers to verify their identity, organisation and use case; it retains Usage Data so that the Customer responsible for a given Request can be identified; it does not permit the use of Source credentials; and it considers requests from Source operators (section 5).

2. What customers must understand about Output

2.1 Output may be protected. Output frequently includes material in which third parties hold rights, for example: photographs, videos and audio; editorial text, articles, reviews and creative listing descriptions; compilations and databases protected by the sui generis database right; trademarks and logos; and Personal Data of identifiable individuals. The fact that content is publicly accessible does not mean it is free to copy, republish or exploit.

2.2 No licence from us. We claim no rights in Output and grant none. Any right you have to use Output derives from the law or from the rights holder, not from ScrapeBadger.

2.3 You assess lawfulness. Before making a Request and before using Output, you must satisfy yourself that your intended collection, storage and use is lawful (Terms, clause 7.2). Where you rely on a copyright limitation or exception, for example the exceptions for text and data mining, quotation, research, or temporary acts of reproduction, you are responsible for confirming that the exception applies to you and for complying with its conditions, including any reservation of rights that the rights holder has expressed in an appropriate manner.

3. Rules on the use of Third-Party Content

You must not use the Services or Output to do any of the following, unless the rights holder has authorised it or a statutory exception clearly applies to you:

3.1 Copyright works. (a) Download, store, copy, re-host, reproduce, publish, display, distribute, communicate to the public, sell, license or otherwise exploit photographs, videos, audio or other media obtained from a Source; in particular you must not copy such media to your own websites, applications, listings, social-media accounts, advertising or marketing materials, resell it or incorporate it into products for distribution. (b) Publish, republish, redistribute, communicate to the public, sell, license, use in advertising or otherwise commercially exploit editorial or creative text obtained from a Source (such as articles, reviews and listing descriptions); internal storage and analysis of such text is permitted to the extent that it is lawful.

3.2 Databases. Extract or re-utilise the whole or a substantial part, assessed quantitatively or qualitatively, of the contents of a Source’s database; or repeatedly and systematically extract or re-utilise insubstantial parts in a manner that conflicts with the normal exploitation of the database or unreasonably prejudices the legitimate interests of its maker; or use Output to build, populate or refresh a mirror, replica, substitute or competing database or listing service.

3.3 Access restrictions. Obtain content or functionality that you are not entitled to access, or circumvent authentication, payment or similar restrictions that limit access to authorised users of a Source.

3.4 Rights-management information. Remove, alter or obscure copyright notices, watermarks, attribution, licence terms or other rights-management information.

3.5 Trademarks and endorsement. Use any Source’s name, logo or trademark in a way that suggests affiliation with, or endorsement by, that Source, or that misrepresents the origin of your products or services.

3.6 Personality and image rights. Use images, names, likenesses or statements of individuals in advertising, endorsements or commercial products without the consent required by law.

3.7 Machine learning. Use Third-Party Content to train, fine-tune or evaluate machine-learning models where that is prohibited by applicable law or by an effective reservation of rights.

3.8 Facts and ideas. For clarity, this Policy does not prevent you from using factual information (such as prices, availability, specifications, counts and metrics) or ideas contained in Output, subject to the rules on databases, Personal Data and the AUP.

4. Notice-and-action procedure for rights holders and Sources

4.1 Who may submit a notice. Any person who holds, or is authorised to act for the holder of, copyright, database, trademark, personality or other rights that they believe are being infringed through the use of the Services, and any operator of a Source, may submit a notice to us.

4.2 How to submit. Send the notice by email to legal@scrapebadger.com with the subject line “Content Complaint”, or by post to our registered office. We recommend email.

4.3 What the notice must contain. To allow us to act, a notice must include:

(a) your name, organisation, postal address and email address, and, if you act for someone else, the identity of the rights holder and the basis of your authority;

(b) a sufficiently precise identification of the protected work, database, trademark or other subject matter concerned, including its location on the Source (URLs);

(c) a description of the alleged infringing activity and, where known, how it relates to the Services, for example the Customer, product, website or dataset concerned, sample URLs where the content reappears, and any technical evidence you hold (IP addresses, user agents, timestamps, volumes);

(d) an explanation of why you consider the use unlawful;

(e) a statement that you believe in good faith that the information in the notice is accurate and that the use complained of is not authorised by the rights holder, its agent or the law; and

(f) your signature (electronic is sufficient).

We may ask for further information where a notice is unclear or insufficiently substantiated, and we may decline to act on notices that are manifestly unfounded or abusive. We will nevertheless act on any notice that is sufficiently precise and substantiated to allow us to identify the content and the alleged infringement, even if it does not contain every element listed above.

4.4 What we do. When we receive a notice we will:

(a) acknowledge receipt, normally within two (2) Business Days;

(b) assess the notice in good faith and without undue delay, normally within five (5) Business Days of receiving a complete notice, taking into account its precision, the evidence provided and any information available to us; where a notice is facially clear and the alleged infringement is serious, we will apply an interim restriction within two (2) Business Days pending full assessment;

(c) where the notice appears substantiated, take action that is proportionate to the alleged infringement. Depending on the circumstances this may include: restricting access, for the Customer(s) concerned or for all Customers, to specific URLs, content, domains, Sources, endpoints or features; requiring the Customer to cease the use complained of and to give written assurances; suspending or terminating the Customer’s Account; and recording the matter for the purposes of our repeat-infringer policy (section 6);

(d) inform the Customer(s) concerned of the notice and of the action taken, unless we are prohibited from doing so or informing them would prejudice an investigation, and give them an opportunity to respond;

(e) inform the notifier of the outcome, without disclosing the Customer’s identity unless required by law or court order, or reasonably necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; and

(f) keep a record of the notice and our response.

4.5 Customer response. A Customer who considers that the use complained of is lawful may send us a written statement explaining why, with supporting evidence. We will consider it in good faith. We are not a court and do not adjudicate disputes between Customers and rights holders; where the parties disagree, we may maintain the restriction until the dispute is resolved between them or by a competent court, or we may lift it where the Customer’s explanation is credible and the notifier does not provide further substantiation within ten (10) Business Days of being informed of the Customer’s response. Where a restriction is lifted on that basis, any Strike recorded for the notice is withdrawn.

4.6 Misrepresentation. Anyone who knowingly makes a materially false statement in a notice or response may be liable for the damage it causes, including our costs.

5. Requests from Source operators

5.1 Operators of Sources may ask us to restrict the retrieval of content from their websites or services. Please use the process in section 4 and include proof of your authority to act for the Source. We will consider such requests in good faith, having regard to the legal basis of the request, the content concerned, and the interests of our customers, and may restrict or limit access accordingly.

5.2 We comply with lawful court orders and decisions of competent authorities.

6. Repeat-infringer policy

6.1 A “Strike” is recorded against an identified Customer’s Account when we take action under section 4.4(c) against that Customer on a notice that we consider substantiated, or when we otherwise establish that the Customer has breached section 3 of this Policy or clause 7 of the Terms. A “Repeat Infringer” is a Customer against whom two or more Strikes have been recorded in any period of twelve (12) months.

6.2 On the first Strike we will normally issue a warning and require the Customer to cease the use complained of and to confirm in writing that it has done so. On a second Strike within twelve (12) months we may suspend the Account, or the relevant Sources or endpoints, pending a review of the Customer’s use. On a third Strike within twelve (12) months we may terminate the Agreement (Terms, clause 16.4(b)).

6.3 We may skip these steps and suspend or terminate immediately where an infringement is serious, deliberate, large-scale, or continues after a warning, or where a court or authority requires it.

6.4 Strike records are kept for twenty-four (24) months. A Customer whose Agreement has been terminated under this section may not open a new Account without our written consent.

7. Cooperation and disclosure

7.1 We keep Usage Data as described in the Terms (clause 5.4) and the Privacy Policy. We may disclose Usage Data and Account information to rights holders, Sources, courts or authorities where the law requires it, in response to a valid court order or legal process, or where reasonably necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims. Where lawful and practicable we will inform the Customer concerned.

7.2 Customers must cooperate with us in good faith in investigating notices, including by providing information about their use of Output within the time we reasonably specify, and must inform us of claims they receive as required by clause 7.7 of the Terms.

8. Personal data complaints

Requests and complaints by individuals about Personal Data in Output are handled under clause 8.3 of the Terms and our Privacy Policy. Individuals may also contact us at legal@scrapebadger.com with the subject line “Privacy Request”.

9. Trademarks on our website

If you believe that your trademark is used on scrapebadger.com in a manner that goes beyond descriptive reference or suggests affiliation, please tell us at legal@scrapebadger.com with the subject line “Trademark Notice”, identifying the mark, its registration details and the page concerned. We will review the use and correct it where appropriate.

10. Changes

We may update this Policy in accordance with clause 17 of the Terms. The version in force is the one published at scrapebadger.com/legal/content-policy, with the effective date shown at the top.

Contact: legal@scrapebadger.com · MB “Reikalita”, Vilnius, Republic of Lithuania