Grey Waters of Webscraping
This is an experimental essay will the assistance of ChatGPT - it's an absolute bullshit artist sometimes. Not a reliable researcher, will confidently provide incorrect citations
The legal landscape around web scraping is complex and evolving, and that the legality of scraping can depend on a variety of factors, including the nature of the data being scraped, the terms of service of the website being scraped, and the jurisdiction in which the scraping is taking place.
There have been several recent legal cases about web scraping in common law countries. One notable case is hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp.,[1] which was decided by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2019. In this case, LinkedIn sent a cease-and-desist letter to hiQ, a data analytics company that used web scraping to collect data from LinkedIn's public profiles. LinkedIn argued that hiQ's scraping violated the CFAA and the company's terms of service. However, the court ultimately ruled in hiQ's favor, stating that web scraping of public data did not violate the CFAA and that LinkedIn could not use its terms of service to prevent hiQ from accessing the data.
Another notable case is Yellow Pages Group Co. v. Groupe Pages Jaunes LC,[2] which was decided by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2018. In this case, Yellow Pages sued a competitor, Groupe Pages Jaunes, for scraping its website to collect business listings. The court ruled that while the data on the website was not protected by copyright, Yellow Pages had the right to control the use of the data on its website and that Groupe Pages Jaunes had violated this right by scraping the data without permission.
There are australian examples, including Veda Advantage Limited v Malouf Group Enterprises Pty Ltd,[3] which was decided by the Federal Court of Australia in 2016. In this case, Veda Advantage, a credit reporting agency, sued Malouf Group Enterprises for copyright infringement and breach of contract after the company used web scraping to extract credit-related information from Veda's database. The court ruled in favor of Veda Advantage, finding that Malouf Group Enterprises had infringed Veda's copyright by reproducing the database and that the company had breached its contract with Veda by accessing the database in violation of the terms of use.
Another notable case is the case of Qantas Airways Limited v Edwards,[4] which was decided by the Federal Court of Australia in 2012. In this case, Qantas sued an individual named Mr. Edwards for breach of copyright and breach of contract after he used web scraping to extract information from Qantas' website. The court found that Mr. Edwards had breached Qantas' copyright by reproducing parts of its website and that he had breached the website's terms of use by using web scraping software to extract information.
Footnotes
[1] hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp., 938 F.3d 985 (9th Cir. 2019) *unconfirmed
[2] Yellow Pages Group Co. v. Groupe Pages Jaunes LC, 2012 SCC 1. *unconfirmed
[3] Veda Advantage Limited v Malouf Group Enterprises Pty Ltd [2016] FCA 255 *unconfirmed
[4] Qantas Airways Ltd v Edwards [2011] FCA 253 *incorrect