Web Scraping and Crawling Are Perfectly Legal, Right? (2017)
The idea that you could be sued[1] with breach of contract for violating a ToS in a case like this is goddamn insane. A contract can only be formed if both parties agree to it; and you can't be forced to agree to a contract against your will. Coercing someone into entering a contract is literally illegal.<p>So just don't accept the ToS. They can't <i>make</i> you accept it, no matter what "by [breathing] you accept our ToS" verbiage they put in it.<p>Sure, maybe that would make your access of the website "hacking" ("accessing a computer without permission", since you rejected the contract which would grant permission)... but the court rejected that argument in HiQ vs LinkedIn.<p>[I get that this probably isn't how a typical court would see it, but to me that reflects pro-corporate bias and corruption more than any kind of sane application of common law.]<p>[1]. Edit: originally this read "charged", but "sued" is more accurate. But I guess what I really mean is "successfully sued". Anyhow.