alt Hacker NewsFrom YC /legal
> Except as expressly authorized by Y Combinator, you agree not to modify, copy, frame, scrape, rent, lease, loan, sell, distribute or create derivative works based on the Site or the Site Content, in whole or in part
Not to pretend this isn't widely happening behind the curtains already, but coming from a "Show HN" seems daring.
Replies
I did a show hn a month or so back like this: https://hackerbook.dosaygo.com/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46435308
https://github.com/DOSAYGO-STUDIO/HackerBook
The mods and community had no problem with it
Differences: Sharded SQLITE, used bigquery export, build script is open on GitHub, interactive “archived website” view of HN, updated weekly (each build takes a couple dollars on a custom GitHub runner)
Then why does the API is available for hackernews? If nothing is allowed to be copied legally. And why this post is approved as "Show HN" if it's illegal? Don't get the reasoning here.
This site offers a public, non rate-limted API. IANAL but I'm reasonably certain that's authorization for anyone to use the data as long as they do so through the API. It certainly isn't the case that you need explicit legal permission to use Hacker News comment data in your project.
There have been tons of alternative frontends and projects using HN data over the years, posted to Show HN without an issue. I think their primary concern is interfering with the YCombinator brand itself. "the site" and "site content" referring to YCombinator and not HN specifically.
Quite relevant:
I can't comment on what is legal, but I very much dislike the idea that my comments are the property of Y Combinator. I assume that by writing here, I am putting information out into the world for anyone to use as they wish.