Copyright is not the only relevant law; companies are often worried about the collection of things like prices (which aren't copyrightable) by competitors.
One company, EF Cultural Travel, has sued 2 competitors, and won twice, under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA, 18 U.S.C. 1030). Most recently EF claimed that a competitor's use of screen scraper "exceeded authorized access" to its website because use of the scraper was beyond the "reasonable expectations" of an ordinary user.
On this basis EF actually got a federal court to order the scraper writer not to act in concert with a company that used confidential information about EF's site to make the scraping more effective.
Slashdot Mirror
Copyright is not the only relevant law; companies are often worried about the collection of things like prices (which aren't copyrightable) by competitors. One company, EF Cultural Travel, has sued 2 competitors, and won twice, under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA, 18 U.S.C. 1030). Most recently EF claimed that a competitor's use of screen scraper "exceeded authorized access" to its website because use of the scraper was beyond the "reasonable expectations" of an ordinary user. On this basis EF actually got a federal court to order the scraper writer not to act in concert with a company that used confidential information about EF's site to make the scraping more effective.