Question on web scraping Great Works of the Western World

Robert
Robert Member Posts: 2
edited November 21 in English Forum

Dear Readers and Logos Staff,

I'm looking at trying to scrape some portions of books (Great Works of the Western World) off of the website in an automated fashion. I'll will be for educational purposes (bible study, really. I want to share some of the material that is linked in the Syntopicon as I have found it really interesting for the group). I looked at the Terms of Service, but they were unclear to me about using portions of the books. I do not know right now how many pages that I will be taking a look at. If it helps, I have purchased physical copies of the books that Logos has in the digital form.

Before I go and do any scraping, I figured that I should ask first.

Am I allowed to automatically scrape books or other material from this website for educational purposes? If so, how much? Is there a rate limit that you set that I should be aware of that I need to stay under? Can I make API calls directly to get the information? If so, is there documentation that I can see to help with that? (sorry if I missed a page on that)

Thank you for any and all information, I really appreciate it.

Sincerely,

Rob

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Comments

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 53,397

    The series is owned by Britannica not Logos. If was first published in 1952 so all original material is under copyright. Educational use does not expand the fair use privileges - most universities now get publisher permission before photocopying an article for a class. Please contact Britannica or a professor at a local university to get a sense of what is possible.

    Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

  • Robert
    Robert Member Posts: 2
    https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1283263#Comment_1283263

    Thanks for the info!

    Actually, I think these works are under a 1992 copyright, so even more recent.

    However, do you know if that means I can use an automatic method to copy the text from Logos or if I cannot do that? Just want to be super certain about it. Thank you!

  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 53,397
    https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1283265#Comment_1283265

    Fair Use and Other Educational Uses (uchicago.edu) is the most current information I have. It has links to sites specifically dealing with fair use.

    Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

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