Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;calcol, post: 26514686, member: 77639&quot;]Doubt TPGs pay for prices realized data from any company.&nbsp; I believe some auction companies send data to TPGs free of charge.&nbsp; There is a bit of quid pro quo though.&nbsp; Auction companies often use images from TPGs in description of auction lots.&nbsp; Once the data is publicly available, anyone can copy and republish numerical data and the gist of text descriptions. Publicly available data can’t be copyrighted.&nbsp; What is proprietary and restricted is the exact format of the data and photos.&nbsp;&nbsp; When I’ve wanted to use photos from auction companies for magazine articles, they were very generous.&nbsp; I could use them freely as long as the companies got credited.</p><p><br /></p><p>Heritage sued Christie’s over downloading prices realized AND images which were then used for its own business purposes.&nbsp; However, Heritage claimed the downloading was accomplished in part by implanting malware on its servers.&nbsp; If true, that would be illegal.&nbsp; I recall that several years ago, Heritage’s website was down for at least one day.&nbsp; That outage might have been to eliminate malware and institute better security. Case description:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://ipwatchdog.com/2017/01/03/heritage-auctions-sues-christies-copyrights/#" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://ipwatchdog.com/2017/01/03/heritage-auctions-sues-christies-copyrights/#" rel="nofollow">https://ipwatchdog.com/2017/01/03/heritage-auctions-sues-christies-copyrights/#</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Case was forced to arbitration because of the wording of Heritage’s own user agreement.&nbsp; According to Google AI, arbitrator required Christies to pay $1.8 million.&nbsp; Then they squabbled over payment of lawyers’ fees:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.loeb.com/en/insights/publications/2018/01/heritage-capital-corporation-v-christies-inc" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.loeb.com/en/insights/publications/2018/01/heritage-capital-corporation-v-christies-inc" rel="nofollow">https://www.loeb.com/en/insights/publications/2018/01/heritage-capital-corporation-v-christies-inc</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Not the first time Heritage went after Christie’s legally.&nbsp; There was an earlier lawsuit over employee poaching.&nbsp; These boys just can’t get along!</p><p><br /></p><p>Auction companies probably welcome their prices realized being broadcast far and wide.&nbsp; It’s free publicity.&nbsp; Some, like Great Collections, don’t send their data to TPGs because they want folks to visit their own website.&nbsp; I’ve complained about this to GC because having as much data as possible in one place, like PCGS, makes it easier to do research.&nbsp; But they don’t want to change.&nbsp; However, if the TPGs (or anyone) wanted to collect the data and publish it in their own format, there’s no legal reason not to.&nbsp;&nbsp; Of course, if a big company brings a lawsuit against you, your defense can cost a lot even if the suit is baseless.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>There is no reason to write scripts to obtain lot descriptions and prices realized one by one from company websites.&nbsp; Most of the large companies have their catalogs and prices realized in PDF format which are offered to anyone to download.&nbsp; They’re also available on the Newman Portal.&nbsp; I have digital copies of all the Heritage and SB catalogs going back decades.&nbsp; If I were inclined to, I could write programs to extract any of the data from the catalog and PR files that exist on my own computer.&nbsp; This would be much faster than trying to obtain the data over the internet. </p><p><br /></p><p>Mike[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in