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Show HN: Instagram-scraper – Scrape instagram photos by tags, without API

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Re: Show HN: Instagram-scraper – Scrape instagram photos by tags, without API

#51

Post by tokyodude »

dna_polymerase wrote: post #33
stingraycharles wrote: post #2

What is HN’s opinion on the legality of these types of scrapers? Instagram’s robots.txt disallows this kind of scraping, same for their ToS. Legal precedents have been mixed - the recent LinkedIn vs HiQ case is a good signal, but it’s still in appeals court.

If you don't want me to scrape it, don't put it on the (public) internet. Simple as that.

I don't really get this attitude of because it can be done it's therefore ok. It's possible to kill people therefore it's ok. It's possible to loiter therefore it's okay. It's possible to play your music at all hours of the day at 120db therefore its ok. It's possible to drive your motorcycle into a grocery store therefore it's okay.

The physical world has plenty of laws and/or common sense/customs about what behavior is not okay even though it is fully possible. Why should the net be any different?

Re: Show HN: Instagram-scraper – Scrape instagram photos by tags, without API

#52

Post by jjeaff »

merinowool wrote: post #36
madeofpalk wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately "whether you like it or not" doesn't carry much legal weight.

That's why it is important to root out corruption from law making, nowadays called "lobbying" - this should be illegal. If you expose an endpoint to the public you can't restrict who or what can consume it. You can do throttling on your side but that's it. Otherwise this is just racism towards machines.

I don't think machines are yet considered a "protected class".

Re: Show HN: Instagram-scraper – Scrape instagram photos by tags, without API

#53

Post by merinowool »

notduncansmith wrote: post #50
merinowool wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I the only one who thinks human non-human divide is conceptually the same as coloured non-coloured divide in the past? I think those who exercise such questions to allow or block access to their services are morally corrupt.

I don’t think we’re There Yet. Once we build machines that can seek out and acquire the resources necessary for their own growth/healing/reproduction, whose rights are worth fighting for, it’ll be easier to make that case. Anyways, that wouldn’t help here. No machines’ rights are being infringed by preventing you from scraping the web. If said self-reproducing machines were denied access to websites on the grounds th…

I think the same think privileged people though about other when created divides. Are you really trying to make a case for discrimination to continue? I wonder what robots of the future would have thought about that comment.

Re: Show HN: Instagram-scraper – Scrape instagram photos by tags, without API

#54

Post by moarcoffee »

fulafel wrote: post #28
zbentley wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but the question was about legality , not ability. Of course there are ways to reliably circumvent some laws. Some laws are stupid. Sometimes those two intersect. But those serve only to answer questions about indictment risk and whether something should be legal, not whether or not it is .

Legal rephrasing: Is there a reason that as a user of a user-agent like Firefox you would be in a legally different position than as a user of this user-agent app?

Yes, because your intent is to circumvent the provided mechanisms of the Instagram API and you’re doing it with a program instead of just browsing around the site with the intent of using it like a normal user who isn’t scraping. “But the program did the exact same thing that a human could do!” is a really good, pedantic CS argument, but it’s a terrible legal argument.

Re: Show HN: Instagram-scraper – Scrape instagram photos by tags, without API

#55

Post by moarcoffee »

merinowool wrote: post #39
AznHisoka wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Want to block non-humans from automatically accessing your content? OK, then i will block non-humans from deciding what ads to show to me. Want to show me an ad? Have an actual human being manually pick the ad in real time and deliver it to me!

Am I the only one who thinks human non-human divide is conceptually the same as coloured non-coloured divide in the past? I think those who exercise such questions to allow or block access to their services are morally corrupt.

> Am I the only one...

Yes, because you’re comparing racism and slavery to not being able to use your computer to scrape data from websites.

Edit: don’t ask for opinions if you can’t handle some of them.

Re: Show HN: Instagram-scraper – Scrape instagram photos by tags, without API

#56

Post by katzgrau »

If you've ever tried scraping Facebook you'd know that it's nearly impossible to do so reliably. They have a formidable anti-scrape strategy. Instagram is currently ridiculously easy to scrape - but I doubt it's going to be that way for long.

Re: Show HN: Instagram-scraper – Scrape instagram photos by tags, without API

#57

Post by zo1 »

merinowool wrote: post #36
madeofpalk wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately "whether you like it or not" doesn't carry much legal weight.

That's why it is important to root out corruption from law making, nowadays called "lobbying" - this should be illegal. If you expose an endpoint to the public you can't restrict who or what can consume it. You can do throttling on your side but that's it. Otherwise this is just racism towards machines.

Why are we even arguing about this, is what I want to know. Call a referendum and let the people decide.

Re: Show HN: Instagram-scraper – Scrape instagram photos by tags, without API

#58

Post by merinowool »

moarcoffee wrote: post #55
merinowool wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I the only one who thinks human non-human divide is conceptually the same as coloured non-coloured divide in the past? I think those who exercise such questions to allow or block access to their services are morally corrupt.

> Am I the only one... Yes, because you’re comparing racism and slavery to not being able to use your computer to scrape data from websites. Edit: don’t ask for opinions if you can’t handle some of them.

I am comparing denial of right s on the basis of characteristic that subject can't change.

Re: Show HN: Instagram-scraper – Scrape instagram photos by tags, without API

#59

Post by gazarsgo »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #38
Rjevski wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And there are plenty of other proxies to choose from. My point is, you can’t just put content online and expect to put restrictions on how I send the HTTP requests for it on my side. And if you think you can well I’ll do my best to prove you wrong. Edit: I totally agree that the data they’re giving me is their property and I merely have a license to use it. I’m not advocating for copyright infringement or anything li…

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Just because you can make an HTTP request doesn’t mean you have a right to do whatever you want with that data. You may not agree with that, but that’s what at least US law outlines.

There are plenty of fair use exemptions to copyright. That said, US law is not the highest of moral standards to aspire to. Especially US copyright law. We've been flaunting it online forever, because it's obviously ridiculous and still hasn't caught up with what's fair and equitable in 30 years.

Re: Show HN: Instagram-scraper – Scrape instagram photos by tags, without API

#60

Post by toomuchtodo »

gazarsgo wrote: post #59
toomuchtodo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Just because you can make an HTTP request doesn’t mean you have a right to do whatever you want with that data. You may not agree with that, but that’s what at least US law outlines.

There are plenty of fair use exemptions to copyright. That said, US law is not the highest of moral standards to aspire to. Especially US copyright law. We've been flaunting it online forever, because it's obviously ridiculous and still hasn't caught up with what's fair and equitable in 30 years.

If you're staying within the boundaries of fair use, you only have a Terms of Service to contend with. What you want to aspire to is meaningless versus what the law of the land is (which is what is enforced). That is my point. I don't disagree that most first world copyright law is overzealous and in a lot of scenarios, unreasonable.
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