Myths/Misconceptions Vs Facts

So Kev thinks it's okay for him to do this and sell data that he's scraped, but nt to harm his golden goose by revealing the secrets for what they really are, normal web sites and a tool that scrapes them. How pathetic.

* Edited by Mikel to remove quote from another post that contained content from a private email exchange.

Very funny (& very telling) that the Google ad that appears at the top

of this vey page is for screen scraping software

Who's scraping (or trolling) whom

Targeted advertising at it's finest

You're almost (but only almost) making me want to see the adverts.

Since they (Randy) won't tell us what it takes to become gold & ad free

I may not hang around here too long

I don't recall ever seeing ads on F/T except for a few minutes after IB took over

Fortunately they were convinced to take them away (or hide them) for some of us

This may well be why F/T loads SO MUCH faster than M/P (each & every page)

Ads? I don't see any. Adblock is yur friend! (and it's free!) ... but we're way off tpic now...

For those who can't see the ad.
It does seem odd to see an ad about screen scraping on this thread

Amusing, thanks, although the embedded ad in your post only became visible for me when I temporarily disabled Adblock Plus and allowed doubleclick.net -- not things I'd normally do.

"Almost certainly not legal" And that justiffies a kangaroo court of internet yahoos*? WOW

* Edited by Mikel to remove use of potentially offensive term. Edit approved by poster, as thread closure made it impossible for poster to edit own content.

Obviously web scraping is a known method and is software sold to assist those who want to do it. Hmmm..the kangaroo court must now go into session I presume and figure out some other way to diss KVS

Clever use of slang language... God, how much lower can you go?

I am honestly trying to reach your level but its very difficult I notice you didn't focus on the word "ALMOST"

You 2 guys should just get a room

He is just indiscriminately attacking everyone who does not agree with him and does that without using his brain. For example he even did not notice that the ALMOST he mentions was not from me… I am over him now… From now, I have big red "IGNORE Terry Quinn" button installed...

Wow, this thread has gotten out of hand on some level

If you do not like what KVS does and then you have the choice of not using their product. If you really want to do the right thing and have the resources to do so, and then why don't you create a similar tool and offer it to everybody for free?

It costs money to host the tool on a server, time/effort in building the tool and maintaining it, providing support and meeting the needs of the end users, etc...

I am not saying I support what KVS might be doing and as a business person integrity is one of the most important virtue of running a business, however there are legitimate costs involved that the KVS team needs to raise funds to cover... So, they can easily claim that they are raising funds to cover those costs, but not to "sell" the data... I am no lawyer, so I may sound ignorant here...

Simply put, if what they are doing is an act of infringement or violates copyright laws, and then they would have been shut down a long time ago... Look at what happened to Widgetheads.net, so if it was an issue the airlines/sources would have written a letter to KVS already...

That assumes they can find him. Do you see a name/company name/address/phone number on the website? I don't. That and the domain registration is private, there is no record of any business name, etc, and those of us who have been around for a while know he's not based in the US, further legally complicating matters for those who wish to find him and shut him down.

Or it assumes that he can be shut down technologically in some way, however that is very hard to do without hurting the functionality of the source website for regular users, and the tool presents it self as IE6 to servers.

It also assumes that the websites know KVS even exists. Since he has never told anyone where he gets the data from, and prevents anyone else from making it public, he's basically survived by flying under the radar.

All in all not things that a legitimate business does, if in fact KVS is really a business at all and not just a person doing this as a side project.

If this phantom website is collecting funds can't the money trail be followed

If there is none then I'm sure there are drug lords that would pay to learn

Well, considering that Netscape funded/created Mozilla....

You owe me a new keyboard.

Funny, isn't it?

WhoIs Results for kvstool.com

Contact Type Registrant
Organization Name: KVSTool.com
First Name: KVS
Last Name: Tool
Address 1: PMB 77
Address 2:
City: Funafuti
State / Province: TV
Postal / Zip Code: TV
Country: TV
Phone: +1.5158819615
Fax: +1.5158819615
Email Address: Domain.Administrator@KVSTool.com

Contact Type Administrative
Organization Name: KVSTool.com
First Name: KVS
Last Name: Tool
Address 1: PMB 77
Address 2:
City: Funafuti
State / Province: TV
Postal / Zip Code: TV
Country: TV
Phone: +1.5158819615
Fax: +1.5158819615
Email Address: Domain.Administrator@KVSTool.com

Contact Type Technical
Organization Name: KVSTool.com
First Name: KVS
Last Name: Tool
Address 1: PMB 77
Address 2:
City: Funafuti
State / Province: TV
Postal / Zip Code: TV
Country: TV
Phone: +1.5158819615
Fax: +1.5158819615
Email Address: Domain.Administrator@KVSTool.com

Apparently Steadfast Networks provides the hosting..... And the Domain was purchased through Enom...

This is based on what came up in the searches, but not necessarily accurate or anything...

This is way off topic, but you would not believe it. In early 1994, I took over job that Peter Tattam (author of Trumpet Winsock) was doing before becoming famous and wealthy!!! AFAIK, he is not wealthy any more...

That post is a crock:
A. anyone using the the internet can be found. I KNOW THAT FOR AN ABSOLUTE FACT
B. follow the money... KVS has visa/mastercard merchant accounts.
C. follow the money...KVS has a paypal account.
D. Telling people where someome gets their IP would be stupid,and, if people want to guess so be it. He owes his customers a service that works for them and nothing more. If its illegal it would have been brought down over the last SEVEN YEARS THE SITE HAS OPERATED.
E. You started off accusing him of screen scraping and now that its been proven that screen scraping software is all over the place you've tried to change tactics in your guerilla warfare.
F. all in all a sham from people with ulterior motives or misguided ethics

I knew the ALMOST was not from you and thought you might address that instead of attacking me. Its obvious you simply hate being truth challenged while on your perch.

The Wandering Aramean has dne just that.

Which tells me why he wanted so much information, as suspected... an ulterior motive was his game. That shows the hyocrisy here. I know its not rocket science to create stuff but those of us who have better/more important things to do with our brains don't mind paying KVS a few bucks a year to get the service we do.
If he provides decent competition I'm sure he'll get customers and if its free then as I always say, you get what you pay for.

You are ALMOST right, except he already had the sources and he never self promoted the tools and doesn't charge people for free data.