On 2023-09-20 at 16:50, Tom Browder wrote: > On Wed, Sep 20, 2023 at 13:36 Nicolas George <george@nsup.org> > wrote: > >> Tom Browder (12023-09-20): >> >>> What if you used an equilavent script but increased and >>> randomized time > > ... > >> We can try to exercise some common sense, in particular by >> comparing to similar situations. For example, if you take something >> that does not belong to you, but do it at night, when everybody is >> sleeping and being very careful you do not make a step squeak or >> break the laser beams, is it still stealing? > > I apologize. I was not referring to stealing, and I haven't read the > details in the terms of use. What I should have asked was: "is a > single query in the script okay?" If so, how much time would have to > pass before the next query in order to adhere to the terms of > service? You'd have to refer to the TOS to be certain, but based on the way they've been described here, it isn't a question of amount of time. It's the fact that you're applying scripts and automation at all, vs. having each search be individually triggered by (and, I suspect, the results sent/shown to) a real-person user. Yes, this is horrific in light of the fact that automation is what computers are *for* - but it also makes sense from Google's likely perspective, and it's entirely plausible that they might care enough to try to detect even minimal amounts of automation. In principle, it probably *would* be possible to script doing such a thing in such a way that it would not be sufficiently distinguishable from human access patterns for them to be able to tell. (Varying time between accesses almost certainly would not do it; among possibly other things, you'd need to specify the accessing program, etc., in a way that is doable but not necessarily obvious.) That said, you'd be taking a gamble that your ability to obfuscate such things is better than Google's ability to detect it. Who would you prefer to bet on in a competition like that? -- The Wanderer The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature