[Autogenerated] with legal consequences.
Could you face if you were considered a threat to the
operations of a third parties website?
Let's have a look.
Typical suing reasons from a third-party are violation
of the Computer Fraud and _____ Act, also known a C f A.
This might also imply a violation of state, federal or another Penhall code.
Beyond that,
there's also the possibility of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,
also known as the got to, which protects intellectual property.
Subsequently,
there's also the possibility of breaching contract by non
compliance with CITES terms of service.
And finally, you might also get accused of trespass and misappropriation of data.
As hefty as this all sounds,
there are still some typical excuses people used to dismiss these warnings.
These are called typical counter arguments.
Some typical counter arguments that are used by people when legal
consequences arise are I can do whatever I want with information and
data that are publicly accessible Now this is falsy just because the
data is visually exposed to people's eyes,
it doesn't mean that you have the right to extract this
data for your own use if it's not yours.
Another typical reason is that I'm doing this for a fair and good cause.
Even if what you are doing is to help the homeless,
the site owner might think that you might have different motives and you could
be affecting or a threat to their business and operations.
So this is a gray area and therefore a falsy argument.
Another typical counter argument is that the browser does the same thing.
This is again falsy and highly debatable.
Terms of service often contain clauses that do not allow crawling,
scraping or harvesting by any means and automated uses of their services.
Therefore, you're legally bound to those terms to them.
It doesn't matter that you could not get that data manually.
Another thing people assume is that the worst thing that can happen to
them is that they will simply get banned or block.
This is another gray area and a falsy argument,
as it really depends on how the third-party affected and
their legal team interprets your actions.
Another common mistake is that people think that terms of
service are not enforceable in any way.
The general rule with any contract including a websites,
terms of service or use is that they will be generally
deemed enforceable by browsing their site.
You are already agreeing to their terms of service regardless of whether
websites terms of service are click wrap or browse URL app.
The defendants failure to read those terms is generally found a
relevant to the enforceability of its terms.
Therefore, this counter argument is also falsy as a consequence.
As a rule of thumb,
do not simply assume that just because you are technically
capable and have the knowledge required that you are allowed to
crawl and scrape someone else's IT.
It's important and therefore better to obtain written permission before
scraping data and harvesting content from a site that is not yours and
comply to the terms of service if granted.
So before you think of scraping someone else's site,
it's a good idea to take these possible issues and consequences into account.