Vertical Search Engines and Copyright

An anonymous reader writes "I am a big fan of Oodle, the online classifieds aggregator. I was disheartened when Craigslist announced that they would block Oodle from their site in late 2005 (old link), as I find their service very handy. I came across this page at the site of an aggregator of freelance job openings that summarizes the arguments around the legality of meta search engines and mashup-like sites and I found myself wondering if Oodle could have avoided the ban. There is an interesting argument there that seems to undermine copyright claims of user-generated content compilations. Are mashups legal? How does this affect sites like Digg or YouTube?"

I hate vertical search engines

[Anonymous Coward]

I just can't get the hang of typing in a downwards direction.

Re:I hate vertical search engines

[Anonymous Coward]

The Horizontal Experience is still the best.

Re:I hate vertical search engines

[dotpavan]

I am Japanese, you insensitive clod!

Re:Digg and YouTube are mashups?

[RingDev]

Damn it. Not again!

-Rick