Illegal

alunharford

It seems like they're getting only factual information from the site (there is a car for sale. The seller is ***. The price is ***. etc)

My non-lawyer understanding is that copyright only covers creative works, and not factual data.

kmm5000

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kmm5000

rupee99 wrote: »

They may be breaching copyright but it is unlikely to be persued by Autotrader as it may backfire on them, e.g. advertisers on Autotrader might be miffed if the widest publicity was not given to their cars, and anyway they don't suffer a loss (unless I am wrong on that point and Autotrader get some kind of commission).

Autotrader have got a stranglehold on used car market. They have many rules in place and will be losing money as they charge £5 per week per dealer to feed info onto third party sites.... So are losing money with what we are doing....

kmm5000

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sharkie

Kmm5000, I have got no clue if it is legal or illegal. Does sound a bit shady. End of the day the car gets sold and everyone is happy - unless you keep loosing loads of commission. The buyer will hear about the ad and most likely notice it is the same wording as in AutoTrader

My question to you is that people will be phoning your work and asking for references, you can give a bad factual reference, however I the potential employer would ask the question to the manager that "Kmm5000 has been working ABC for X years, and considering you know Kmm5000, if you would take her back unreservedly please sing her praises, or if she has not been a model employee please put the phone down".

Also if you blow the whistle, neither employer will want to employ you again as you are just trouble waiting to happen, especially for something that is minor - no puppies or children are getting hurt.

I think you would be better off biting you tongue, smile, lie and say thank you for all you have done and hopefully you will produce me with a favourable reference and be a positive referee. - It will do you more good future-wise.

DVardysShadow

kmm5000 wrote: »

That is correct. We scrape 200+ dealers which we do not pay the £25 per month CAP charge or autotrader are not getting the £5 per week datafeed charge they would usually get. Like I say though it may be best to just leave it and put it all behind me.....

CAP data?? What is that? Is this ultimately from DVLA or something?

Soorry, I'm OK with the general concepts we a re working with here, but not with the specifics of your operation.

kmm5000

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DVardysShadow

kmm5000 wrote: »

They seem to have lots of terms and conditions so I will read up on this.

Good move. You will not make yourself popular, but you knew that anyway. I think you should consider printing them off and highlighting the things your project would contravene and asking for a discussion to run through the issues with your boss. If the project still continues, it is then time to write a SHORT note with the terms and conditions attached, saying "if we do XYZ, it appears we will contravene PQR, do you still wish to go ahead or would you prefer to find alternative solutions?"

To be fair, it appears like a career limiting move, but the things you are being asked to do don't look like things you could do with integrity anyway.

kunekune

You might want to look up the protection that is provided for whistleblowers, as it seems to me that this is what you are. I'm not sure what the current legal situation is, and it would be as well to know before you do anything.

kmm5000

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