I'm working on a project that I need sports data (specifically NHL stats) for, and I found via Firebug that there is a private API used internally on NHL.com.<p>I was wondering 1) if it's legal to use (I will be publishing summaries derived from the data; something like http://twitter.com/nflscorebot) and 2) if it's generally considered polite to use an API that wasn't built for public use (eg should I ask first?).<p>Thanks in advance for any help!
<a href="http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=26389" rel="nofollow">http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=26389</a><p>CTRL+F for: Linking to the websites and embedding content<p>Quote: "Certain Services may provide you with the ability to embed Content into other web pages, such as features of the NHL Network Online and the Team video players at nhl.tv that enable you to embed NHL video into your blog, fan site or other web page. All use of embedded Content must be for non-commercial purposes only, and may be disabled by the NHL Parties at any time. Prohibited commercial uses include any of the following actions taken without the express approval of the NHL Parties: "<p>That sounds like it would cover the API even if it's not mentioned explicitly.
Can you use an approach like the NFLScorebot is using?<p><a href="https://github.com/nflscorebot/learn/blob/master/learn.js#L108" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/nflscorebot/learn/blob/master/learn.js#L1...</a><p>Scraping the data from a public page is probably better than using a private API.
I'd probably ask, not least because if they say no you'll have to figure out a different approach now, which, ultimately is going to be a lot easier than restructuring your whole product if they find out a cut you off in like a month.