[NewsPoster]

A DMCA (Digital Milllennium Copyright Act) complaint has forced the creator of Apple-Tracker.com to disable it, a notice states. The website previously allowed people to check availability of different iPhone 5s and iPad Air models at nearby Apple Stores. This was extremely useful for some shoppers, since Apple doesn't make the information readily accessible on its own website.

The complaint charges that Apple-Tracker violates the terms of service for Apple.com, which specifically bar other websites from scraping data. Apple-Tracker appears to have been scraping Personal Pickup checks, which normally display for just one model at a time while processing an online Apple Store order. The website grouped these results together, making it possible to see at a glance which capacities of a given color/wireless combination were at all the Apple Stores near a given US ZIP code.

[darkelf]

did no-one read the actual complaint? it says nothing about the DMCA.

[macmedia1]

Apple doesn't want you to buy their products. Instead of allowing people to find out where stock is, they prefer you to be in the dark.

[darkelf]

@macmedia1 and where was apple-tracker scraping its data from? apple's website? right.