Ok … I don’t know US law. But based on your outline it’s “theft of a good” (the articles) not “theft of a service” …
And as you say the assumption that it could ever be taken to a US court assumes that the owners are both US citizens, and the stolen articles are on US servers.
(internet cases seem to get very messy with jurisdiction – especially once eastern European or Asian countires are involved.)
Now as for the second point – the redistribution of revenues – it’s a nice idea – but simplistic in the extreme.
The idea of the internet being tied up with a whole lot of red tape and US style legalese arguing about puntive damages worries me … and that is a scenario where the cure is worse than the problem.
:crazy:
The problems that I foresee …
1) More than one site will likely be scraped / stolen from.
2) It’s difficult to determine what percentage of revenue came from which scraped items.
3) The scraper may have different affiliations to the original site.
I’d rather see the scraper affiliates revenues frozen (until the claim is proven) – and then all revenues forfeited and donated to a worthy cause.
(no idea what this would be – internet neutrality – feed the world – red cross – animal protection – something worthwhile).
The benefits of this scheme is that the scraper is punished – removed from the program and loses any fraudulent revenue – but also that there is no incentive to start a whole barrage of false claims.
:bigsmile:
Again that’s just my two cents worth.
:wavey: