Is it possible to create a hypothetical basket of groceries and sundries, have a bit of code scrape the Walmart/Carrefour/Boots/Tesco/Daiso/CU websites for prices by prefecture/zip code, save the data over time and publicly available?
I would like inflation statistics to be more transparent and would pay for a subscription to that.
#inflation #asknostr #bitcoin #nostr
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No.
Websites are covered by copyright. Even the princes displayed are covered by copyright. Obviously, no large retailer wants a comparison app and they can use existing copyright laws to shutdown anyone that scrapes prices from their websites.
You would need to get permission in writing from each company to scrape their prices legally but they'll never allow that. Well, the cheapest retailer would probably give you permission, because they'd be the only ones to benefit.
Not sure what country you are referring to but in the US and EU internet prices are public domain, even if the website is copyrighted as far as I am aware. I could be wrong
©1998—2024 Costco Wholesale Corporation. All rights reserved.
See that 'all rights reserved' bit at the end of their copyright notice on their website? Scrape their website and their lawyers will explain exactly what it legally means.
All rights means you have no rights. Their army of lawyers will enforce their rights with prejudice.
I get you
Costco—this one’s for your lovely legal squad
On another note I found another similar program called www.camelcamelcamel.com for price history information on Amazon. Pretty cool 
In addition to prices being not-trademarked as far as I know, you would not need to necessarily call out sources to post information about a hypothetical basket of groceries.
One step farther would be scraping all this data and recording it on the blockchain regularly. Bears some cost, but becomes uncensorable.
This is what NIP-54 would be for if fiatjaf was a friend of mine instead of a glowie
