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Lawsuit on basis of what? IANAL, but I've heard many times that ToSes/EULAs which forbid you from querying their servers and reverse engineering their apps aren't legally binding in most jurisdictions.



A lawsuit would likely be based on copyright/database rights infringement if you are accessing a data source which the company only makes available under specific conditions which you are bypassing.

Craigslist v Padmapper/3-Taps in the US is a slightly analogous case albeit with 3-Taps scraping rather than bypassing restrictions on an API.


But - unless the data's included with the app - is that app author's responsibility? That sounds like suing Bram Cohen for illegal downloads over BitTorrent.


BitTorrent is completely neutral and just a mechanism for distributing content which can be contrasted with the others. Anywhere where there is a deliberate attempt to bypass restrictions on the availability of data then you may get into trouble. Even more so when you bypass then attempt to monetise like with 3Taps...




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