points by stickfigure 2 days ago | 0 comments
We do not in fact live in that world. It is not illegal to violate the terms of service of a website.
A website can block Xyz user agent, put Xyz in robots.txt, or even put "No using Xyz!" in a popup and you cannot be prosecuted for using Xyz. It might be hard for you to evade their requirements, but it's not illegal.
Whether or not it's wrong is a matter of opinion. Yours differs from mine, that's fine.
[–] BizarroLand 2 days ago
Wrong != Illegal
It is wrong to pretend you are deaf to get out of an awkward conversation. No one is going to put cuffs on you for that.
[–] stickfigure 2 days ago
Okay then, how about this:
Ignoring robots.txt is not wrong. That's my opinion, just as valid as yours.
It also happens that the legal system agrees with my opinion of the wrongness of this act.
Also, you did say this:
> where website owners can legally dictate
Which is, as I pointed out, false.
I can’t go scrape New York Times articles and make copies of them without first licensing them from NYT.