debate Is it Ethical or Legal to data mine content on an Expired Domain?

[iMedia.co]

Hi All,
I want to discuss an important part of expired domains which are active sites in the past. I recently purchased an expired domain and instantly it got inquiries and huge amount of Traffic. I did an archive search and found that it was a awesome site in the past and been abandoned or discontinued or sold or what ever by past the owners.
My dilemma is...
1) Is it legal to data mine the old content? ( I want to contact the past owners for content but then again what if they want the domain back
2) Is it ethical to data mine? (after all we are buying and selling expired names and sometimes it feels like we are profiting from someone else misfortune)
3) If its ethical / legal ? how do we data mine it? and Is there a tool for it? Have anyone done this before?

Please share your experiences. Thank you all in advance. JT

Oh by the way the domain is HotgirlsDressup.com and I pulled the ads from parking because it was showing adult ads (i tried keyword as games and children's games and yet its keep showing adult banner - on the side note someone can tell me how to fix that)and previous site was for young girls game site like dress ups, cooking games and so forth.

 

[equity78]

You can request the parking company change the ads but sometimes Google will not oblige them. I have a domain that is not adult and is a legitimate product but Sedo still shows adult ads.

I think the notion of misfortune of an expired domain is a bit off. It can be if someone was dealing with a personal issue and the domain expired.

Other times people just move on from projects that were not making them money, get a better job and don't have the time for the website, etc...

I would not use old content from the site that was previously developed, that could lead to an intellectual property claim. You can also violate privacy policies etc...

I think you can look at a site archive to get ideas but be original with the content.

 

[iMedia.co]

@equity78 - Thank you for all your suggestions. I appreciate it.