It's not criminal to download publically-available information from a site, but it may be against the terms of service of that service provider (Yahoo, in this case). Depending on how you do it, it may also be inconsiderate. If you are retrieving information from a site, remember to take steps to reduce server load.

For a concrete answer, have a look at the Yahoo Terms of Service. Good luck!

use Finance::YahooChart;

foreach( @ARGV ){
last unless /\w+/;

my %img = getchart(symbol => $_ , size => 'b', type => 'w',
                 include => 'm');

`get $img{'url'} > $_.jpg`;

}
[download]

#!/perl/bin/perl
use strict;
use Finance::YahooQuote;

my @quote = getquote @ARGV;

foreach (@quote){

print "${$_}[1] Bid: ${$_}[9] Ask: ${$_}[10] Last: ${$_}[2] \n";

}
[download]

c:\>quote.pl ibm msft qqq
[download]

Any time you republish information without specific permission you are opening yourself to trouble. Oh by the way the information being downloaded is actually the property of the NYSE, NASDAC or whatever exchange it originated from and is being republished by Yahoo as a result of a licensing agreement they have with the respective exchanges or whatever provider is providing them with the market feeds.

But then, I'm not a lawyer, don't play one on TV and all of the legal knowledge I have is the result of watching way too many episodes of Law & Order. I would consider the following:

1. Consult an attorney before publishing the results of your derived work publicly
2. or don't make it publicly accessable. If you are using it for your own use I can't forsee you getting in trouble for it. OTOH see #1 above.

Non-realtime stock quote information (usually 15 min delay or so) is public information -- you can do anything you want with it. These actual figures are like data from an almanac.

A particular chart, on the otherhand, is subject to copyright. Yahoo! is usually pretty liberal with their usage polices -- check their terms of service. Just use common sense. If it's for more or less personal use, I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about it. If you're republishing charts, that's quite likely another story.

If you're that concerned, get the raw quote data and generate your own charts using one of the various graphing or charting modules on CPAN.

Matt

Not that I am a big fan of lawyers, but if you really want to cover your behind, I would recommend consulting with one rather than depending on the advice of Perl users. Legal matters tend to be about as complex as programming matters, and require a similar level of expertise and attention to detail if you want to avoid mistakes. (Also, any non-lawyer here who passes along incorrect legal advice could possibly open him/herself up to legal trouble.)

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, so please consult with your lawyer before assuming any of my preceding statements are correct. B^)