How Legal Is Web Scraping?"

I’ve recently learned how to perform basic web scraping using nothing but Nokogiri, Open-Uri, Ruby, a paperclip, and the internet. It’s an awesome feeling – to be able to MacGyver your way deep in to the code of a massive website and pull out exactly what you need, throw it into a database, and then manipulate that data to your heart’s content. It’s like I’ve discovered that I have a secret superpower, and am only beginning to see what I can do with it.

How I felt when I scraped my first website

But, as the cliched superhero movie line goes: Son, with great power comes great responsibility. Cue John Williams music.