Legal threat closes postcode feed

Websites that help people find jobs or hospitals have been hit by legal action threatened by the Royal Mail. The threat was issued against the company supplying them, and many other sites, with postcode data. Royal Mail said the legal action was threatened to stop "unauthorised access" to the postcode data. Ernestmarples.com, which supplied the address data, said it did not have the resources to fight a legal battle so has turned off its feed. Sites affected by the withdrawal of data include Job Centre Pro Plus, HealthWare (locates nearby pharmacies and hospitals), Planning alerts.com (monitors planning applications), Straight Choice (finds out who sent political leaflets) and many more. Commenting on its action the Royal Mail said: "We have not asked anyone to close down a website. Many of the sites hit by the action are volunteer efforts that would be unable to afford the licence fees - about £4000 per annum for unlimited access.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7700621.stm