> I talked to many different lawyers, including lawyers who had successfully defended companies from scraping-related lawsuits, and they all told me, unanimously, that it was hopeless.
How long ago was this? It seems like the courts have shifted their position on this over time and only very recently (as in the last year) have they started to take a more permissive stance on scraping.
My experience was mid-2015. Hopeful signs have indeed become more frequent, but law moves at an absolutely glacial pace. Things are not going to change substantially for a few more years at the bare minimum.
We're in a good spot socially right now, as the tech behemoths are no longer perceived as plucky upstarts and quirky computer whizzes, but instead as creepy 1984-ish overlords. So I think the stage is set for upheaval -- maybe even some Congressional action if someone can tie this to the "deplatforming" thing that has Republicans fired up -- but we're a ways out yet, especially if we're just going to be crossing our fingers for a favorable SCOTUS ruling.
Compare the Aereo case at [0] for what is perhaps a counter-intuitive philosophical divide: the conservative side of the Court dissented from the majority in holding that Aereo should've been in the clear.
How long ago was this? It seems like the courts have shifted their position on this over time and only very recently (as in the last year) have they started to take a more permissive stance on scraping.
The paper linked elsewhere in this thread does a great job of summarizing the trend: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3221625