A strange press release from newly independent Yellow Pages, who are:
“approaching a number of large New Zealand businesses and government organisations believed to be misusing information from White Pages online.”
They are saying it is part of an “industry move”, with quotes from IAB’s Josh Borthwick and Keith Norris from the Marketing Association.
So which businesses are going to get cease and desist letters? Well – I fancy a quick Google may help.
Sturm.net host a wap service for searching white pages.
and that is it. It cannot be surely.
So I read through to the very endo of the press release (and updated this post as a result). At the end is the vital information:
“… if an organisation wants to verify its own contact database or create a database of potential customers using White Pages online, this is an example of business use and therefore that organisation will need to enter into a formal agreement with us and adhere to certain terms and conditions.”
It sounds like if I check one individual’s address then I am up for some sort of contract with WhitePages. Surely there has to be a level of materiality.
A separate, and potentially more serious, breach of terms and conditions is ‘scraping’ is where companies or individuals deliberately copy or scrape data (e.g. pages from internet sites) and use this information for their own gain, sometimes passing it off as their own.”
This I will give them – scrapping the entire or chunks of the site is pretty bad.
The question then is which companies would do either of these activities. It could be any really – from small companies trying to get a Direct Marketing list together, to utilities, and any one of a number of web companies trying to build a directory of, say, businesses.
The press release seems pretty Orwellian at times:
“We need big business to step in for the benefit of all smaller publishers who simply can’t afford to defend their rights and content from negligent use,” said Mr Borthwick.”
While Mr. Wright, in an unfortunate turn of phrase, sounds like he wants to stop businesses using the White Pages online for anything:
“Organisations are using White Pages online to benefit their own business activities, says Yellow Pages Group Chief Information Officer, Karl Wright.”
They are very careful not to name names – but expect the salesmen and lawyers to come calling if you have a large mailing list(s) and employees that hit Whitpages a lot.
Lance Wiggs 