1

I’m just wondering if I will get in trouble for selling a website scraper targeted at a specific site? I see lots of online services offering this, some quite well established like ParseHub and they dont seem to be getting into any trouble so I reckon it must be fine?

Will I be correct to say only the person who actually uses the script will get into trouble, not whoever created it or is offering it as a service for others?

West
  • 177
  • 3
  • 2
    Keep in mind that computer crime laws vary a lot around the world. – Philipp Feb 03 '20 at 15:46
  • "They don't seem to be getting in trouble, so [...] it must be fine" Ever try that argument with a police officer giving out a speeding ticket? Just because they don't get in trouble doesn't mean it's legal to do that. Maybe the site doesn't have the resources at the moment to sue, or they are building a case... – Ron Beyer Feb 03 '20 at 16:08
  • @BlueDogRanch Thanks for the link, very informative – West Feb 03 '20 at 16:12
  • @RonBeyer Their service is a general scraper and isnt targeted to a specific site.I see their terms of use mention they dont allow the service to be used for unauthorised or illegal activities, and that if so then they are not responsible. If a scraper is illegal, would throwing in some terms of use like this somehow protect the programmer? – West Feb 03 '20 at 16:33
  • 1
    They can try, however consider the case of Napster who only provided the means for users to share copyrighted material and did not, themselves, infringe. They were found responsible for "contributory infringement" as well as "vicarious infringement" even though they did not do so themselves. – Ron Beyer Feb 03 '20 at 16:47
  • @RonBeyer Got it, thanks – West Feb 03 '20 at 16:52
  • I swear people abuse their power to downvote. Whats wrong with this question? – West Feb 03 '20 at 16:54
  • @West It's an informative link, yes; but the point is that it answers your question, which is a duplicate. And just because other people don't get sued doesn't mean what they do is legal or ethical. – BlueDogRanch Feb 03 '20 at 17:20
  • @BlueDogRanch Yes I understand now that its illegal. The link did help me get to the answer but I had to infer a lot of things and in the process I found a few legal cases specifically for scraping eg Aaron Swartz and laws like the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in US and other similar laws in other countries. So in all honesty i feel the question was similar but not exactly a duplicate and also because the answers there were strong on the fact that the programmer would have actually went in and changed the underlying code of a game, yet nothing gets changed on a website being scraped. – West Feb 04 '20 at 00:43
  • @West I know this is 3 years late... But the 'accepted answer to that question is wrong. ' look at my published answer for why that answer is wrong... It doesn't mean that the targeted web scraper is legal... But web scraping in general is considered legal (if it wasn't google would be in a lot of trouble). Its what you do with the information that determines if it is legal/illegal. – Questor Nov 06 '23 at 22:53
  • @Questor Thanks will check it out – West Nov 07 '23 at 03:33

0 Answers0