4 ms·

In what world is "engage a third-party scraping company" a better option than "drop a quick email to the site operator"?

• binarymax 9y ago
  Because with scraping you are in a legal grey area. But if you contact the site directly and they say "no", then there is no excuse to scrape.
  • throwaway6845 9y ago
    Well, yeah, like if you ask someone to sell you their dog and they say "no". Doesn't justify stealing the dog.
    • binarymax 9y ago
      Your analogy doesn't hold up. Your example is clearly theft, and is a criminal matter. Violation of a sites terms is a civil one, and again is a legal grey area. Scraping the site doesn't delete the content from a server...but there is only one copy of the dog. EDIT - I can't reply to your comment below, but FWIW I agree that scraping sites in this manner is unethical. I am merely describing the logic that most scrapers go through for self justification and legal protection.
      • throwaway6845 9y ago
        The analogy was "doing something anyway because you might be told 'no'", not "my server behaves like a canine quadruped". Copyright infringement is also potentially criminal in the UK, it's not as simple as you suggest. But whatever. It just saddens me that the internet is a constant "don't be a dick" battle with companies like the scraper guys. (edit - understood :) )