> My target market for this search engine would be the owners and associates of the sites I would be scraping. If the product is for competitive analysis or pr

> My target market for this search engine would be the owners and associates of the sites I would be scraping. If the product is for competitive analysis or price-comparison purposes, which is the only conclusion I can draw from that sentence (why else would you scrape your peers?)... then Market Leader A is highly incentivized to try to shut down any provider that feeds their content in an actionable way to their smaller competitors B and C. Even if A could theoretically benefit from B and C's information just as much, B and C have more to gain than A does, and that's dangerous to A. And A does have an argument that their proprietary content is not being used under fair use. It might not stand up in court, but their legal department can still make your life a living hell, and if they deem the threat large enough, they probably have enough resources to bleed you dry without breaking a sweat. Perhaps the potential upside of addressing this market is worth the legal risk. I am not a lawyer. But as soon as you get reasonably big, you'll paint a target on your back.