4 ms·
> Courts have tended to find that robots.txt is non-binding Evidence? Wikipedia says the opposite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots.txt#Compliance https:
by mpweiher 1y ago
> Courts have tended to find that robots.txt is non-binding
Evidence?
Wikipedia says the opposite:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots.txt#Compliance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots.txt#Compliance
> e.g. hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn
The Wikipedia page for this case mentions only legal means, not technical means and does not mention robots.txt at all. As far as I can tell, robots.txt wasn't really relevant to the ruling in that case.
- gnfargbl 1y agoThe actual ruling says, literally, that "Adherence to the rules in a robots.txt file is voluntary." It's not a settled area of law, but that seems to be the current position.
- mpweiher 1y agoAnd the other rulings said the opposite. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- gnfargbl 1y agoYep, absolutely. I hear you. Like everything legal, it seems to be fuzzy and context-dependent. And that is the point -- the HOPL asserts that you can just put a robots.txt on your website and say that it means bots accepted the terms in that file. In reality, that's a dubious claim.