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A comment on Web Scraping in 2016. Parent comment

Re:Web Scraping in 2016 by ccvannorman on Tuesday August 23, 2016 @10:36PM (#12349293)
This is exactly my response to "you can't legally scrape my site because of TOS." I don't think anyone has a legal right to tell me HOW I use their service. Making "browsing my website using a script you wrote yourself" illegal is akin to "You cannot use the tab key to tab between fields on my website, you must only use the touchpad to move the cursor over each field individually."

It's baloney.

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Re:Web Scraping in 2016 by cookiecaper on Tuesday August 23, 2016 @10:41PM (#12349319)
Under the CFAA, they do have the right to determine what constitutes authorized access. If they say you're unauthorized for using the wrong buttons on your mouse, then you're unauthorized. It's treated very similarly to trespass on private land.

You can try telling the judge it's baloney, but if he's going by current precedent, he probably won't agree with you.

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Re:Web Scraping in 2016 by ccvannorman on Tuesday August 23, 2016 @11:01PM (#12349389)
It is not the same flavor of violation as trespassing on land, more like riding a bicycle on a sidewalk. Fortunately, I'm not in the business of scraping sites, but I still find this legal precedent abhorable, and I hope it gets struck down in court when push comes to shove. I would certainly vote that way if given the chance.
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Re:Web Scraping in 2016 by Dayshine on Wednesday August 24, 2016 @05:20AM (#12350728)
It's like riding a bike in a skate-park with a small sign saying "No bikes".
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Re:Web Scraping in 2016 by TeMPOraL on Wednesday August 24, 2016 @10:11AM (#12352125)
It's like riding a red mountain bike on a bike path with a small sign saying "only black road bikes allowed".
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