Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Re: Can we display a rating calculated from the data of other web sites?

This is an interesting subject, and one that I've researched for clients in three contexts. #1 was a guy who published a guide to recordings of classical music, rating their relative quality based on mathematical and subjective massaging of the reviews in half a dozen magazines. As far as I know, in several years of publishing, he was never challenged as to the legality of his operation, and if I recall, he did list the publications he used to form his composite rankings.

#2 wanted to do the same thing for wine tasting scores. I don't think his publication ever got off the ground.

#3 had a mathematical model for predicting the auction value of certain collectibles (rare coins, if I recall) based on prices realized lifted from auctioneers' results lists, which they make available to their clientele. This business was operated from a hole-in-the-wall in Bangladesh or somewhere that made him hard to reach for service of process, but I don't believe he had problems other than some harrassment from one or two auctioneers that stopped sending him lists of prices realized (he got them through someone else after that).

Actually, the two main lines of legal attack are defensible - it's not a copyright violation, because using someone's fact or opinion is not copying (the form of expression is modified); and it's not misappropriation of a trade secret, because publishing information destroys its secrecy.

The concept is possibly assailable in three (or more) other ways, however. #1, If you get the data via a subscription or the like, that's a contract, and the contract may contain a clause restricting your use of their data, and there's a pretty good chance it could be enforced, for damages. #2 & #3- there may be grounds for suit under some non-specific concept of "unfair competition" under the statutes (#2)or common law (#3) of one or more states, maybe even California. Proof of damages would be tough, I think.

The right to re-publish information of a tabular and non-creative or expressive nature was discussed and decided in the "Yellow Pages cases" (sorry, I can't give you a cite) which held that AT&T, etc. had no defensible property right in phone number, etc. information it collected and printed. So, while your idea cannot be blessed as "100% safe," it is at least potentially defensible.