Ethics of Comics Feeds

Chad has written a piece on how legal Tapestry is (or not). This is something I did think about up front, which is why I ask people who use the feeds to support the creators of the comics; I’m not doing this to make a profit, I only ask that people send me a book or two to help cover the cost of maintaining the feeds. Anyway, here’s my view:

Ucomics.com:

Displaying, storing, copying, or otherwise making available any content from the Site on another website without the prior written permission of uclick is expressly prohibited.

I actually think this is the easy one: I’m not storing the strips anywhere, and I’m not displaying them on my website. I provide links back to the source website for all strips. You could argue that the RSS feed is just a webpage that links through to the most recent set of comic strips.

Without limiting other restrictions, you agree not to reproduce, transmit, sell, or otherwise exploit the Site and/or Applications for any commercial purpose.

Yes, you could argue that I’m transmitting portions of the site. However, it is not for any commercial purpose.

Comics.com:

For purposes of this Agreement, the use of any UM Materials on any other web site or networked computer environment is prohibited.

Again, I’m not actually using the materials, merely providing an application which allows access.

Here’s a question though: is something this covered by America’s so-called Fair Use section of Copyright law?

All being said and done, I’m not a lawyer, nor is Chad, and if UM or UFS or anyone asks me to stop…, well, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it ;-)