Does accessing a page in a search engine cache provide assent to the terms of service for the cached page? What if the user has never even visited the cached website?
C'mon HN users. Use your noodle!
CL, which is supposed to be a free service, is looking quite petty here. Baseless lawsuits are more what we'd expect from a PadMapper-like site, which are a dime-a-dozen.
The wonderful thing about the US is almost anyone can sue almost anyone else and assuming the court rules are followed, the filing will be accepted. A "live" lawsuit is only a matter of paying a lawyer.
Of course, how long the suit live will depend on facts.
Others have tried these TOS arguments (where the user has visited the site, not simply a cached page in a search engine) and they have failed.
If you want to stop scraping, then do not put the data on the public web.
Put it behind password access and your chances in court increase exponentially.
C'mon HN users. Use your noodle!
CL, which is supposed to be a free service, is looking quite petty here. Baseless lawsuits are more what we'd expect from a PadMapper-like site, which are a dime-a-dozen.
The wonderful thing about the US is almost anyone can sue almost anyone else and assuming the court rules are followed, the filing will be accepted. A "live" lawsuit is only a matter of paying a lawyer.
Of course, how long the suit live will depend on facts.
Others have tried these TOS arguments (where the user has visited the site, not simply a cached page in a search engine) and they have failed.
If you want to stop scraping, then do not put the data on the public web.
Put it behind password access and your chances in court increase exponentially.