eBay Sues Auction-Indexer

Seth Finkelstein writes "According to a story in the Boston Globe, eBay is suing an auction-indexing company. eBay says its auction data is unique, and legal claims include 'trespassing, copyright infringement, and false advertising.'" The suit was filed "under a California statute originally written to fight 'cracking'" - I wonder if that's how trespassing got listed as a charge.

Here's a little more background on this lawsuit. In early October, an ABC News story described how the auction-indexer, Bidder's Edge, had taken out a full-page New York Times ad slamming eBay's protective attitude. At that time it decided not to list eBay items. In early November, it changed its mind and, says a ZDNet story, put eBay items back on its site. Thus the lawsuit.

If a specialized search engine for auctions is illegal, aren't all search engines illegal? Disobey the robots.txt file and go to jail?