Comment by boricj
7 months ago
> robots.txt isn’t really legally binding
Neither is the HTTP specification. Nothing is stopping you from running a Gopher server on TCP port 80, should you get into trouble if it happens to crash a particular crawler?
Making a HTTP request on a random server is like uttering a sentence to a random person in a city: some can be helpful, some may tell you to piss off and some might shank you. If you don't like the latter, then maybe don't go around screaming nonsense loudly to strangers in an unmarked area.
The law might stop you from sending specific responses if the only goal is to sabotage the requesting computer. I’m not 100% familiar with US law but I think intentionally sabotaging a computer system would be illegal.
I'm also not a lawyer, but wouldn't they dismiss this as a sabotage if the requester is not legally forced to request it in the first place?
No, why would they? If I voluntarily request your website, you can’t just reply with a virus that wipes my harddrive. Even though I had the option to not send the request. I didn’t know that you were going to sabotage me before I made the request.
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