Well, for one it's not a physical store nor a physical entrance and there is no sign that says "Welcome". I don't think the analogy is helping to make anything

Well, for one it's not a physical store nor a physical entrance and there is no sign that says "Welcome". I don't think the analogy is helping to make anything more clear... It's possible it's making things more confusing. In my opinion, the bottom line is that if LinkedIn doesn't want to serve data to this company, then they should immediately cease doing so using the many well established means available to them. For LinkedIn to claim that following a URL and downloading the data is somehow "hacking their website" is entirely ludicrous. I understand they had a lawyer tell this company that they didn't want them to visit the URL, but I don't see how that somehow turns lawful web browsing into illegal hacking.