

Ask HN: Should I keep building my site with all the funny reviews from Amazon? - gregmuender

Today I&#x27;ve been hacking away on fiftyfivegallons.com - A site to collect and display all the funny reviews from Amazon, Yelp, Airbbnb, Apple iTunes, etc. Should I keep building it?  If you&#x27;d like to submit a funny review, I&#x27;ve got an open Google Doc going: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.google.com&#x2F;spreadsheets&#x2F;d&#x2F;1Mml6GaOHVWJtRHupAw7QVBmsTDl9foUTl_nqsCPRwB8&#x2F;edit?usp=sharing
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gregmuender
I'm pulling inspiration from products like "TextsFromLastnight",
"Damnyouautocorrect", and even Genious.com (formerly rapgenious.com). Imagine
a complete repository of all funny reviews. People could even upvote/downvote,
or submit a review with 1 click (if they have a browser extension.)

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walterbell
Are there any copyright issues?

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gregmuender
Yes, interesting point. I skimmed through this:
[http://www.writersweekly.com/print/the_latest_from_angelahoy...](http://www.writersweekly.com/print/the_latest_from_angelahoycom/007473_07252012.html)

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walterbell
Maybe allow people to re-submit their own reviews to your site? They own the
original copyright. In the meantime, you could quote an excerpt and link to
the original.

Related: TrustYou is doing automated semantic analysis on travel reviews
across multiple sites, then syndicating their assessment back to the vendors
being reviewed, [http://www.trustyou.com/press/travelers-now-read-hotel-
revie...](http://www.trustyou.com/press/travelers-now-read-hotel-reviews-
revolutionary-new-way-meta-reviews-summarize-everything-said-hotels)

~~~
gregmuender
Ya, it seems analogous to TrustYou. In doing further research, it looks like
Amazon is granted a right to use the copy as they wish, which could be to let
affiliates, resellers, and any other people market the product, IMHO. And
isn't driving users to a website to laugh at a review a form of marketing?

~~~
walterbell
Yes, your site could drive traffic to the review sites. Have you seen
tvtropes?

Amazon used to have an API for reviews, but it was discontinued,
[http://mkcohen.com/amazon-pulls-the-plug-on-review-
data](http://mkcohen.com/amazon-pulls-the-plug-on-review-data)

