[Koha] Use of Amazon reviews etc illegal?

[Owen Leonard]

If so this explicitly contradicts what Joshua Ferraro was told by
Amazon.com when Amazon functionality was first being formally
integrated into Koha. I remember a mailing list post on the subject
but now I can't find it. Does anyone else remember? A starting point
for finding the answer to this would be find out under what terms
Amazon content use *was* allowed.

  -- Owen

2010/2/14  <m.mason at ytu.edu.au>:
> Nicole and all:
>
> I just discovered that Jesse Haro reported last March that library catalog
> use of Amazon material was forbidden by Amazon as contrary to the terms of
> the
>
> Amazon Associates Web Service
>
> .
>
> Re: Use of Amazon.com Content in Koha's Catalog
>
> From : Jesse Haro < jesse.haro_at_nyob>
> Date : Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:54:17 -0700
> To : NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
>
>
> I have been following the trail of conversation
> regarding Amazon.com and
> thought it worth sharing our recent experience with Amazon.  I
> oversee the OPAC environment for Phoenix Public and was the
> lead in implementing Amazon product data not only into our OPAC, but also
> directly into our bibliographic data for searching. We have implemented
> Endeca for our OPAC and have implemented various product elements into
> the
> search index.  Following the release of the Customer Service
> Agreement from Amazon this past December, we requested clarification from
> Amazon regarding the use of AWS for library catalogs and received the
> following response:
>
> "Thank you for contacting Amazon Web Services.  Unfortunately
> your
> application does not comply with section 5.1.3 of the AWS Customer
> Agreement.  We do not allow Amazon Associates Web Service to be used
> for
> library catalogs.  Driving traffic back to Amazon must be the
> primary
> purpose for all applications using Amazon Associates Web
> Service."
>
> This response came from the support contact link on the AWS help pages.
> We
> are investigating the possibility of establishing a direct relationship
> with Amazon, however it appears that using AWS for purposes other than
> section 5.1.3 is in violation of their agreement. We have subsequently
> removed much of the Amazon content from our OPAC and are looking into
> other sources of enriched data.
>
> Jesse Haro, Web Services Manager
> Phoenix Public Library
>
> [END OF QUOTE FROM JESSE HARO]
>
> The customer service agreement has since been updated -- there does not seem
> to be a 5.1.3 now, and I could not find any express prohibition, but
>
> someone at Koha needs to officially contact Amazon to see if
> this is still the case. Otherwise all the work to access Amazon content
> on Koha OPACs may be a waste of time and its implementation may leave
> libraries open to a lawsuit from Amazon.
>
> It's too bad.  I notice that apart from 'Google covers', all the
> other 'content enriching' services such as from Baker and Taylor or
> Syndetics require payment.
>
> Mike Mason
>
>
> At Sunday 14/02/2010, you wrote:
>
> Mike thanks,
>
> I had gone to AWS today and saw that there was no 'private key' which
> is what it used to be called - but that it was now a secret key - so
> glad that you see the same thing as me.
>
> Nicole
>
> On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 6:54 PM,  <mcmlists at people.net.au> wrote:
>> Hi Nicole,
>>
>> My statement that "what we call the Amazon private key is really the
>> Amazon
>> Secret Access Key" was based on the following: I have just set up my
>> Amazon
>> associate ID and AWS access keys in Amazon, and the site described two
>> keys
>> as follows: (this is cut and pasted from Amazon's Associates' "Manage your
>> account" page:)
>> You will need access identifiers to call the Product Advertising API,
>> authenticate requests and identify yourself as the sender of a request.
>> Two
>> types of identifiers are available: AWS Access Key Identifiers (Public and
>> Secret Keys) and X.509 Certificates.
>>
>> The site guides you to set up the Public and Secret keys.  It does not
>> mention a "Private key".  So I assumed that what you referred to in the
>> 3.2
>> manual as a "Private Key" was meant to indicate Amazon's "Secret Key". But
>> perhaps you had something else in mind?
>>
>> Unfortunately I can't test this as I'm on Liblime's Koha Express, which is
>> still back in Koha 3.00.02.012 and has no system preference entries for
>> Amazon reviews or for the Secret/Private key.
>>
>> Mike Mason
>>
>> At Sunday 14/02/2010, you wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I want to confirm that what we call the Amazon private key is really
>> the Amazon Secret Access Key.  If so I want to update the language in
>> the manual and the sys prefs page -but I want to be sure before I do
>> that.
>>
>> Nicole
>> _______________________________________________
>> Koha mailing list
>> Koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
>> http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
>
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>



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