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For learning purposes I want to view the html source of sites like amazon.com, ebay etc , After learning I want use it in my work, I don’t want to copy and paste the html source.

Points to consider:

1. Hiding html source is unprofessional, here

2. Viewing HTML Source is safe for developers, here

3. All working web professionals do it for learning, here

So can i View HTML Source to learn css styles etc ? or should I get permission from website’s owner ?

Any help would be great.

5

Answers


  1. The HTML/CSS/Javascript code is loaded in your browser and you can watch it as many times as you want without any concern.

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  2. yup, it is 100% legal to view and use

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  3. Client side code is always accessible publicly, viewing it or using it for learning purpose is absolutely fine. There is nothing illegal to that. However, if you are using the design of the any website or the part of website such as java-script or css, there should be a copyright notes; just read that once before using it. I don’t think all java-scripts and css may have the copyright issues and you can also read the website policy before using it.

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  4. That depends.
    If you live in the USA and circumvent a copyright protection system (however badly implemented) while viewing and using source code you broke the law. There are many other ways to break the law by misusing other peoples websites (like scraping, leaching, mirroring, hacking, etc). Search for “laws you break every day” and you will see how hard it can be to not break the law, but the rule of thumb is be a nice small fish and likely any laws you break people wont care enough to charge you with.

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  5. You can read a source, but you shouldn’t use it if not allowed. If the source has a license, you should read it to know.

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