[rosenjon]

Very cool! This could be really useful for something I'm working on.

I noticed in the example queries on your site, the data that is returned looks like it is being piped pretty much exclusively from Amazon. For example, every image url is an Amazon url. Have you licensed this data from Amazon? Otherwise, any customers who use this info on their website are effectively ripping off Amazon's product data, and could be exposed to legal issues. For example, would it be kosher to download an image and use it on your own site?

I'm trying to understand the terms under which this data is being provided and whether it is worth it for me to buy a subscription to your service.

[rosenjon]

So the terms of service answer this question in a vague way. Basically, they say you aren't allowed to use this data for any commercial purpose. But who is going to want to use this data for anything other than commercial purposes?

How You Can Use the Service Semantics3 grants you only a limited license to access and make use of the Service for your own personal, non-commercial purposes. This license is the only license to the Service granted by Semantics3 unless you have a separate written agreement with Semantics3 or there are Additional Terms applicable to your use of a particular feature, resource or other portion of the Service. This license does not include any resale or commercial use of the Service, its contents or any derivatives. You agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell or exploit for any commercial purposes any portion of, or access to, the Service without the express prior written consent of Semantics3.

You may not download any data or other resource made available as part of the Service, except for temporary system caching necessary for your own personal, non-commercial use of the Service in accordance with the TOS and applicable Additional Terms, if any, and not for further distribution or transfer to others, without the express prior written consent of Semantics3. You may not--and you agree not to--modify, reformat, copy, display, distribute, transmit, publish, license, create derivative works from, transfer or sell any information, products or services obtained from the Service, except in accordance with the TOS and as set forth in applicable Additional Terms, if any, or otherwise agreed in writing with Semantics3. Additionally, except as set forth in applicable Additional Terms, if any, or otherwise agreed in writing with Semantics3, you may not: frame or mirror any part of the Service without the express prior written consent of Semantics3; forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any content transmitted through the Service; create a database or dataset by systematically downloading and storing content from the Service; intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law and any regulations having the force of law; use any robot, spider, site search/retrieval application or other manual or automatic device to retrieve, download, extract, copy, index, "scrape," "data mine" or in any way gather information, content or other materials from the Service or reproduce or circumvent the navigational structure or presentation of the Service. Any unauthorized actions taken by you or by any third party on your behalf automatically terminates any and all permissions or licenses granted to you by Semantics3.

[vinothgopi]

Well that doesn't make any sense. All our use cases would be violating our own ToC then!

What we meant was you cannot resell the data. We shall fix the wording of that ASAP. Thanks for pointing it out.

[jere]

>I noticed in the example queries on your site, the data that is returned looks like it is being piped pretty much exclusively from Amazon.

Damn, I really am hoping that's not the case. I got all excited because I really don't like the Amazon Product Advertising API. In fact, I have a project that I've basically given up on pursuing further because it depends on product lookup and I didn't think I could depend on Amazon, for various reasons especially:

-You can't even use the API unless you participate in their affiliate program, which you can't do in certain states because of constantly shifting tax laws (the fact that I have to do this to hit an API makes me facepalm)

-There are pretty low hourly usage limits. You can only get those increased by driving traffic and thus sales to Amazon. I'd rather pay.

-Technically, you can't write an app unless the exclusive purpose of the app is driving sales to Amazon

I'd love to pay for this thing if it is the real deal. If anyone has other alternatives, I'd like to hear them too.

[vinothgopi]

Thanks for the comment! Since amazon.com storefronts cover more products that the rest, hence the skewed results - this is specifically true with the long tail queries. As we add more sources, the dominance would be less pronounced :)

We did hear that feedback too. Hopefully our API helps mitigate that issue. Hit me up at vinoth at semantics3.com if you'd like to talk about how our API could work for you!

[rosenjon]

The discussion of the TOS kind of obscured the real question I was trying to ask, which is "What are users of this API allowed to do with the image data?"

The API provides a link to the image, which is probably perfectly legal, but the site that displays that image in, say, an ad for a product on a non-Amazon website may be infringing. I'd like more clarity on this particular aspect of this api.