As a general rule, we all know it is not a good idea to scrape
content from a website, yet some companies persist in this
behaviour contrary to law and best practice.
On April 15, Justice Richard Southcott of the Federal Court of
Canada issued a permanent injunction against Mongohouse.com, aka,
MongoHouse.ca, Sheng Lan Mai aka Maxim Mai, Kun Xu, 2565707 Ontario
Inc. and Jing Liu (collectively, the Mongohouse defendants) in a
stinging rebuke against web/data scrapers, upholding the copyright
of the Toronto Real Estate Board in its internal multiple-listings
service systems and database.
The Toronto Real Estate Board, a not-for-profit corporation
representing more than 50,000 realtors across the Greater Toronto
Area, is the creator, author and custodian of the TREB Multiple
Listing Service®, a co-operative service that provides more
than 100 online services, including access to active real estate
listings, detailed property descriptions, archival
