2007-05-03, 08:04 PM
Hi Mike
My turn for apols this time - for taking so long to get back. Re your 'it happens as you get old', I'm retired (early!) and I see nothing wrong with people having senior moments...
It's the Terms & Conditions of the BBC site that I infringe - their T's and C's are here...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/help/copyright.shtml
... and I'm in pretty flagrant violation by publishing direct urls to their program content.
However, as I think I say on my site, I'm not out to antagonise the Beeb, so I tried to stay totally legal on my Synopsis page because it's built using Backstage.
It's the republishing of direct urls that the Beeb doesn't like. The main reason is, perhaps not unsurprisingly, one of copyright. That's why you can play Listen Again stuff from the Beeb in their player - however, please note that it doesn't have rewind button (it's just a crippled clone of Real Player), and that's where the Beeb's perception of the copyright problem lies.
So that's why I don't publish links on the Synopsis page. I think the Beeb is an outstanding institution, and if they're going to allow API feeds from their Backstage site then I'm not going to infringe T's and C's on that one.
On the other pages of my site I *do* publish the base urls. It's these parts of my site which are violating the Beeb's T's and C's, and I'm not sure whether these parts of my site are legal or not. I've put my reasons for publishing in my main site page at...
http://beebotron.awardspace.com
In answer to your spidering question, I get all the synopsis information directly from the Beeb's Backstage site, and the rest I scrape from bbc.co.uk
The Beeb's site, although it works well, is actually quite a mess in terms of linkages (if anyone from the Beeb is reading this then my consultancy rates are extremely reasonable!), and they would have significant difficulty (cost and time) if they revamped it. I therefore expect it to remain 'as is' for the foreseeable future! So if you want to scrape my site feel free - I may change the site url in future, but not the way the content is structured.
I had a myriad of cron jobs running to maintain my site because, being Welsh and therefore tight by definition, I wanted everything done for free. This seems to have come to an end as loads of free web site providers (who probably all use the same servers!) have recently pulled the plug on PHP having off-site access and PHP FTP capability. *** Warning Warning - Geek Alert Following *** Although I've put out a plea for support (not financial) for someone who provides free webspace with PHP and off-site access, as requested in...
http://beebotron.awardspace.com
... (another blatant plug!) I haven't received any responses.
So I may be forced into spending munny, mony, muney, (sorry, I can't seem to even type it, let alone spell it) to set up a proper domain and service. But not yet!
I've droned on a bit(!) so if you've read this far I hope this explains some of the background. If you (or anyone else, come to that) replies to this post then please don't be disappointed if I don't reply for a few days. Although retired, I'm now being stuffed with consultancy work which, much to my amazement, I'm thoroughly enjoying!
Cheers,
Kronalias
My turn for apols this time - for taking so long to get back. Re your 'it happens as you get old', I'm retired (early!) and I see nothing wrong with people having senior moments...
It's the Terms & Conditions of the BBC site that I infringe - their T's and C's are here...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/help/copyright.shtml
... and I'm in pretty flagrant violation by publishing direct urls to their program content.
However, as I think I say on my site, I'm not out to antagonise the Beeb, so I tried to stay totally legal on my Synopsis page because it's built using Backstage.
It's the republishing of direct urls that the Beeb doesn't like. The main reason is, perhaps not unsurprisingly, one of copyright. That's why you can play Listen Again stuff from the Beeb in their player - however, please note that it doesn't have rewind button (it's just a crippled clone of Real Player), and that's where the Beeb's perception of the copyright problem lies.
So that's why I don't publish links on the Synopsis page. I think the Beeb is an outstanding institution, and if they're going to allow API feeds from their Backstage site then I'm not going to infringe T's and C's on that one.
On the other pages of my site I *do* publish the base urls. It's these parts of my site which are violating the Beeb's T's and C's, and I'm not sure whether these parts of my site are legal or not. I've put my reasons for publishing in my main site page at...
http://beebotron.awardspace.com
In answer to your spidering question, I get all the synopsis information directly from the Beeb's Backstage site, and the rest I scrape from bbc.co.uk
The Beeb's site, although it works well, is actually quite a mess in terms of linkages (if anyone from the Beeb is reading this then my consultancy rates are extremely reasonable!), and they would have significant difficulty (cost and time) if they revamped it. I therefore expect it to remain 'as is' for the foreseeable future! So if you want to scrape my site feel free - I may change the site url in future, but not the way the content is structured.
I had a myriad of cron jobs running to maintain my site because, being Welsh and therefore tight by definition, I wanted everything done for free. This seems to have come to an end as loads of free web site providers (who probably all use the same servers!) have recently pulled the plug on PHP having off-site access and PHP FTP capability. *** Warning Warning - Geek Alert Following *** Although I've put out a plea for support (not financial) for someone who provides free webspace with PHP and off-site access, as requested in...
http://beebotron.awardspace.com
... (another blatant plug!) I haven't received any responses.
So I may be forced into spending munny, mony, muney, (sorry, I can't seem to even type it, let alone spell it) to set up a proper domain and service. But not yet!
I've droned on a bit(!) so if you've read this far I hope this explains some of the background. If you (or anyone else, come to that) replies to this post then please don't be disappointed if I don't reply for a few days. Although retired, I'm now being stuffed with consultancy work which, much to my amazement, I'm thoroughly enjoying!
Cheers,
Kronalias