Web Scraping Legality

4 pointsStrategos7472 comments

I am a college student creating a non commercial app (for my resume). This app uses unofficial APIs to scrape data from several competing services, and then displays comparison between these services on a mobile application. Should I be concerned about violating the terms of use of these companies, and possibly being sued? Should I create an LLC?

View on HN

Yeah you should probably do both of those things but you're also young and (assuming you're like the typical college student) asset-free so there's not much money to get by suing you and you may be able to afford to take risks like this. Set up a legal liability shield (LLC) and make sure your actions are defensible according to your interpretation of the law.

I would suggest adding an LLC. Also, I'd recommend adding a time-delay of some sort to whatever you're using. It'll make sure that you aren't using up much of their resources and don't get blocked :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com