can I copy ads?

[hocuspocus]

What is the name of your state? Hawaii

I'd like to start a website that lists various sales advertised in various publically distributed (free) papers. Can I be sued? If not, what if I accidentally make a mistake when entering the sale information? Should I put a disclaimer that I'm not responsible for any errors? In case of an error, could I be sued for misrepresenting a merchant's sale items?

Another idea I have is to copy classified ads from various publically distributed (free) papers to a website. Can I be sued for that as well?

 

[divgradcurl]

What is the name of your state? Hawaii

I'd like to start a website that lists various sales advertised in various publically distributed (free) papers. Can I be sued? If not, what if I accidentally make a mistake when entering the sale information? Should I put a disclaimer that I'm not responsible for any errors? In case of an error, could I be sued for misrepresenting a merchant's sale items?

Another idea I have is to copy classified ads from various publically distributed (free) papers to a website. Can I be sued for that as well?

Both of these ideas would result in copyright infringement -- just because a paper is distributed for free doesn't mean that you are then free to reproduce the paper. Chances are the paper is supported by ads, and your competition would reduce their ad revenues, so they would have a pretty good motive to protect their product.

Perhaps you could work with them -- maybe you could essentially be their online partner. Have you asked them about this type of arrangement?

 

[hocuspocus]

just because a paper is distributed for free doesn't mean that you are then free to reproduce the paper.

For the first idea, all I want to copy is the sale information. I just want to list the items on sale and their description along with prices. I suppose that would be copyright infringement also.

I was actually more concerned about the stores that sell the items sueing me for misrepresenting them. I will take your suggestion and speak to the actual stores and try to get sale information from them directly.