My understanding is that most "public" data is not copyrightable, so scraping it is fine. For instance, scientific data is public, but access to databases can

My understanding is that most "public" data is not copyrightable, so scraping it is fine. For instance, scientific data is public, but access to databases can be charged for. What Macy's phone number is is public information, but Yellow Pages can charge for access to it. In these cases, scraping is fine unless they have a 'Terms of service' that states otherwise. Sites often have terms of service that you wouldn't notice unless you cared to write a scraper for them. Google local for instance has a terms of service that makes it clear it's not for scraping. I have scraped a number of sites to 'repurpose' in other ways. If you're betting the farm on it, talk to a copyright lawyer. If there are lots of sites with the same data, I don't think anyone will notice or care.