Need Help, Thank you.

CARDVALUES.COM You work for a small advertising agency in Cooperstown, N.Y., near the Baseball Hall-of_Fame. Your agency's principal advertising clients are businesses in town, some of whom sell baseball memorabilia. The agency has a good record of placing advertisements for its clients in both real-space and on the internet. Many of these small stores have both physical and internet presences. Last week, you were looking at the web-site of Hendrick Sports, the largest sellers of baseball memorabilia in town. Hendrick is not your client, and try as you have, you have not been able to obtain their business. The Hendrick web site contains a database of information about their recent sales and auctions it has held for signed jerseys and jackets, baseball cards, signed photos of famous players. The website offers a brief, factual description of the merchandise, the price at which was sold, a photo of the item, and the date of the sale. There are thousands of entries. As you scrolled through the Hendrick web-page entries, you had an idea for a new web site that would provide would-be consumers with a place to research the market for these hard-to-price items. The new web site would be a good marketing tool for your agency's clients, and by putting their sales information into your web-site's database, the web site would be even more comprehensive. You have 10 small clients in town that you believe would be interested in joining in, but the key to making it work is to incorporate the Hendrick's information. You check the Hendrick's site, and find a short Terms of Use Agreement. The Hendrick Agreement is directed only to "cookies and data collection, anddoes not say anything about using scrapers or other technological means when surfing their site. Your technician can easily build a computer program to download the past-sales data on the Hendrick site. You mention your idea toCarla Speil, the head of your agency. She is intrigued. But is it legal, she asks? What are the potential consequences if Hendrick finds out? What will you tell your clients if they ask how you got the Hendrick data? Ms. Speil sees the rewards.... But what are the risks? "It seems like stealing" she says. Write a one-page memo, Ms. Speil says, answering her questions. |