Can someone please explain this?

How is it that the PHP moderator VisualAd can close my thread http://vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=371014 based on some misinterpretation of the USPTO website rules? He has no understanding of that rule at all and he is supposed to be the PHP guru.

I was going to respond to your private message. But as you have posted here, I will respond here. As pointed out by the USPTO site and by yourself; automatically searching their database is prohibited by the site and will result in an IP ban. In your first post you state that you want to do this:

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Originally Posted by just_a_me

I want to be able to get some information off a website, but they say that any attempts to automatically get data from their site will result in my IP address being blocked

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So, one can only assume that your intention is to automatically construct a search query, download and parse the data.

For everyone's benefit, Jupitermedia has an Acceptable Use Policy with which members need to conform to. Conforming to our AUP also extends to conforming to the usage policies and guidelines of other sites and it would not be in our interests to show you work arounds and methods which enable you to violate them.

Refer to the following rule:

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You will not use these Forums for the purposes of sharing or distributing viruses, licenses, registration information, software keys, "cracks," or other information designed to do harm to or allow unlawful access to any computer hardware, software, networks, or any other systems.

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Constructing your own search queries would, in effect constitute unlawful access to a system in line USPTO's rules and, hence discussion on this topic is not permitted on the forum.

FYI the thread has been removed, in hind-sight, I probably should have done that initially.

One more point, my decision to close that thread was based on about 20 minutes of research on the USPTO website and reading the thread, I didn't do it for my own personal pleasure or fun. I am quite sure that I have not misinterpreted the rules on the website as, in order to screen scrape, you need to retrieve data automatically and typing the query into their site manually would be pointless.

Fair enough, I apologize for my lack of patience in waiting for your response.

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Originally Posted by visualAd

I was going to respond to your private message. But as you have posted here, I will respond here. As pointed out by the USPTO site and by yourself; automatically searching their database is prohibited by the site and will result in an IP ban. In your first post you state that you want to do this:

So, one can only assume that your intention is to automatically construct a search query, download and parse the data.

For everyone's benefit, Jupitermedia has an Acceptable Use Policy with which members need to conform to. Conforming to our AUP also extends to conforming to the usage policies and guidelines of other sites and it would not be in our interests to show you work arounds and methods which enable you to violate them.

Refer to the following rule:

Constructing your own search queries would, in effect constitute unlawful access to a system in line USPTO's rules and, hence discussion on this topic is not permitted on the forum.

FYI the thread has been removed, in hind-sight, I probably should have done that initially.

One more point, my decision to close that thread was based on about 20 minutes of research on the USPTO website and reading the thread, I didn't do it for my own personal pleasure or fun. I am quite sure that I have not misinterpreted the rules on the website as, in order to screen scrape, you need to retrieve data automatically and typing the query into their site manually would be pointless.

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Good response.

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Originally Posted by mendhak

Good response.

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No it's not - it's just EXCELLENT! :thumb:

The thing is though that I was never directly violating any of their rules that I could tell. You don't have to construct query URLs to search their database, you just have to populate their search forms automatically, right? That wouldn't violate any of their rules. So this is why I don't understand all the thread closing and what not.

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Originally Posted by just_a_me

...So this is why I don't understand all the thread closing and what not.

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You have violated VBF's rules to begin with - isn't it enough ???

What VBF rule(s) are you referring too?

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Originally Posted by just_a_me

The thing is though that I was never directly violating any of their rules that I could tell. You don't have to construct query URLs to search their database, you just have to populate their search forms automatically, right? That wouldn't violate any of their rules. So this is why I don't understand all the thread closing and what not.

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Originally Posted by just_a_me

any attempts to automatically get data from their site will result in my IP address being blocked

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If you read these two quotes carefully, you will see that you are contradicting yourself.

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Originally Posted by RhinoBull

No it's not - it's just EXCELLENT! :thumb:

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It was so good, I gave him reps for it! :thumb: :thumb:

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Originally Posted by just_a_me

What VBF rule(s) are you referring too?

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Acceptable Usage Policy

This is linked to at the bottom of virtually every page.