Mashups: the legal issues

This guide is based on UK law. It was created in February 2007.

On the web, a mashup is a website or application that uses content from more than one source to create a completely new service. They are possible as a result of simple Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs, from sources like Google, Amazon.com and Windows Live. An example is dartmaps, a site that shows the real-time locations of trains in Dublin. It works by scraping the real-time suburban rail data from IrishRail.ie, writing it to XML, then plotting it onto Google Maps, with the help of the city's routes and stations data file. As you view the site, you see the movement of each train.

Mashups should not be created without permission from the sources otherwise there is likely to be an infringement of copyright and/or an infringement of database regulations. Most licences from sites that make APIs available will state that data used in mashups cannot be used for commercial purposes.

Music and video mashups are also popular, remixing material usually without permission from the copyright owners. Like web mashups, this is unlikely to fall within fair dealing exceptions – and therefore will amount to infringement.