

AOL Smacks Startup for Using CrunchBase Content It Gave Away - alienfluid
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/11/aol-crunchbase-cc-flap/

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Pro_bity
We built People+ with the understanding that CrunchBase was a Creative Commons
resource, that the startup community has contributed to for years and
believing all the promotion that has been put out encouraging people to
develop on the platform.

We are pretty shocked when we were told that AOL considered this information
their property and that we needed to stop using the data because we were a
"competitor".

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lquist
I've only had one interaction with Crunchbase CEO Matt Kaufman: he rescinded
my friend's offer to work at Crunchbase because my friend tried to negotiate
the offer. Matt was clear that the attempted negotiation was the reason for
the revocation and was quite judgmental about the whole thing.

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xfax
Seems pretty darn disingenuous on CrunchBase's part. Don't they tout their
"public" nature at every opportunity they can get? Seem the link below [1] for
example:

    
    
      Data on CrunchBase is public, and members of the venture program are welcome to share their CrunchBase spreadsheets as they see fit.
    

No guys, your data is not public if you pull shenanigans like this.

[1] [http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/22/crunchbase-venture-
program-...](http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/22/crunchbase-venture-program-
hits-400-and-launches-tools-to-help-investors-manage-their-public-data/)

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KateScisel
Starting early this year, Crunchbase had made a huge push to encourage
developers to build application with their data.

‘The CB team is going to be regularly featuring guest posts from any developer
who has done something smart and useful with the data, provided that: -Your
application is publicly accessible -Your application attributes CrunchBase
according to the CrunchBase API TOS -Your application directs users to
CrunchBase to update missing or out-dated information’

People+ complied with all their requirements (especially with the attribution)
but it didn't help

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rgrieselhuber
This makes no sense. If it's under a Creative Commons license and they've
encouraged people to use it, I don't see what the problem is. Much of the data
was provided to them for free anyway.

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preillyme
So legally how can @AOL claim that @creativecommons Attribution License [CC-
BY] licensed content can't be used by @PeoplePlus
[http://wrd.cm/HudPS7...](http://wrd.cm/HudPS7...)? I'm confused.

[https://twitter.com/preillyme/status/397771582367477760](https://twitter.com/preillyme/status/397771582367477760)

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pkmehta
I wonder what this means for startups building their product on Crunchbase
like Datafox.co, Mattermark and Inkwire.io?

Seems analogous in some ways to what Twitter did with its API and data and
developer some time ago.

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Pro_bity
I had a similar thought. It seems that CrunchBase has bigger plans and will be
expanding its offerings to become competitive with other startups that are
relying on their platform.

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ArekDymalski
That's simply disgusting.

