Short answer is, they never were. You can't just leave a contract around and say that anyone who gets nearby and/or reads it is now bound by it. It requires som

Short answer is, they never were. You can't just leave a contract around and say that anyone who gets nearby and/or reads it is now bound by it. It requires some type of affirmative act to acknowledge that you read and understand the contract and are voluntarily entering into a formal relationship. That's what that "I have read and agree to the terms of service" checkbox on most sites is for. Otherwise I could leave a piece of paper in a coffee shop saying. "Apple stock will go up 5% in the next month - By reading these words you agree not to trade Apple stock in the next month unless you pay me a royalty.". Reading something does not mean agreeing to its terms and if the content does not require agreeing to its terms to access the content, then the terms are may as well not exist until you do. It doesn't mean you can ignore everything there. If you reproduce the content then you are still liable under copyright laws. If you DDOS the site, you are still liable under tortious interference laws. But outside of something covered by other laws, there is no legal recourse to just putting "no bots" in your terms of service and then suing any bots you find. You can try to _block_ bots, just like you can hide your sheet of paper when you see a cop getting coffee, but you can't sue them for breaking terms they never agreed to. I don't believe there is actually any case law yet as to whether a bot can even agree to a contract. For evidence you can look at the recent LinkedIn case, which, while it is on appeal, turned on this issue.