Copyright and Usage

Copyright and Usage

recipe_scrapers reads recipes from web pages. What you do with them is up to you, and so is the responsibility for it.

What the gem does

The gem:

• reads pages that a website serves to anyone
• turns the recipe on a page into structured data
• does not store, host or redistribute any content
• does not circumvent bot protection or any other technical access control
• makes no claim about the copyright status of the content it reads

What the user is responsible for

If you use the gem, you are responsible for:

• making sure your use of scraped content complies with the law where you operate
• following each website's terms of service and its robots.txt
• getting permission where your use of the content needs it
• meeting any copyright or licensing requirements of the content

Fair use

Many uses fall under fair use, fair dealing or a similar exception, for example:

• a personal recipe collection
• academic research and analysis
• a transformative use that adds something new
• non-commercial teaching

These exceptions differ by country. Make your own legal assessment for your use and jurisdiction.

Good practice

• Cache what you fetch, so each page is requested as rarely as possible.
• Keep your request rate low and respect robots.txt.
• Credit the source when you show a recipe, and link back to it.
• Read the site's terms of service.
• Handle errors and missing fields, because sites change without notice.

For contributors

• Keep the gem a neutral tool: better parsing, bug fixes, new sites.
• Do not add features whose only use is to get around a site's access controls.

Disclaimer

The gem is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind. See License.

Further reading

• Stanford Libraries: Copyright and Fair Use
• EFF: Coders' Rights Project