There is a for-profit organization, WebinarTV, that is unethically scraping webinars using bots that actually attend the meetings. We had several webinars scraped that our SAA ARCS Section delivered. And beyond this, they are also scraping focus groups. It is quite chilling. Here are both of our webinars that were scraped:
Email preservation:
https://webinartv.us/watch/1b5847c63f5b2dc5d6c41ae3dde3fa93f538543f
Archival description
https://webinartv.us/watch/f2db9c47e77d0faa0b0ba495ef33fb61ef31a194
I have written to WebinarTV demanding they remove these webinars and they have not done so. I have also submitted a DCMA form to Google but nothing has happened.
For more information on this type of scraping, visit the Cyber Alberta website:
https://cyberalberta.ca/zooming-out-webinartvs-rampant-scraping-of-online-meetings
There is guidance provided by Stanford University to try to reduce the number of times this happens:
https://uit.stanford.edu/news/protect-stanford-digital-assets-online-video-scrapers
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Mary Grace Kosta
Archives Consultant
London ON
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