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Interesting perspective that I'm inclined to agree with. It seems that large companies with vast amounts of data or users are generally expected to give develo

by bherms 14y ago

Interesting perspective that I'm inclined to agree with. It seems that large companies with vast amounts of data or users are generally expected to give developers a way to interact, but the reality is that they have the ability and right to control access to said resources however they feel benefits their business best (or even reduces the amount of shit they need to monitor). I've always agreed with Calacanis that startups should not stake their business model on the good nature of a larger service (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc). It seems to me that if Ayn Rand were still around, she'd be writing tomes on the new generation of "data looters" - those who feel entitled to the hard earned data of the large faceless corporations that exist within our tech industry. "Sacrifice your data and business to us poor, helpless developers who are just looking for our next meal. It's for the good of the industry!," they cried.

waterlesscloud 14y ago
Rand would say that both parties in a transaction have the right to negotiate the terms of said transaction.
- angryasian 14y ago
  both parties would be craigslist and its users in this case. Which craigslist does allow users to post their information where ever they want.
  - waterlesscloud 14y ago
    The users are also within their rights to request that Craigslist share that information with third parties via an api, or by scraping for that matter. The point is that Craigslist is not the only side in the transaction and should not be presumed to be able to set the terms on their own.
    - angryasian 14y ago
      when you submit your information to craigslist you agree to their tos. If you don't accept you don't have to submit your information to them. Once the information is in their database theres now two sets of data. Yours that exists on your hdd or your head and craigslist copy of the data that you submitted to them. You are free to do what you want with your copy of the data, submit it to other sites, allow other people to somehow scrape it... but craigslist copy of your data, they can now do what they want with it.

by bherms 14y ago

waterlesscloud 14y ago

Rand would say that both parties in a transaction have the right to negotiate the terms of said transaction.

angryasian 14y ago
both parties would be craigslist and its users in this case. Which craigslist does allow users to post their information where ever they want.
- waterlesscloud 14y ago
  The users are also within their rights to request that Craigslist share that information with third parties via an api, or by scraping for that matter. The point is that Craigslist is not the only side in the transaction and should not be presumed to be able to set the terms on their own.
  - angryasian 14y ago
    when you submit your information to craigslist you agree to their tos. If you don't accept you don't have to submit your information to them. Once the information is in their database theres now two sets of data. Yours that exists on your hdd or your head and craigslist copy of the data that you submitted to them. You are free to do what you want with your copy of the data, submit it to other sites, allow other people to somehow scrape it... but craigslist copy of your data, they can now do what they want with it.