Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Well, setting up so-called Barriers to Entry[0] is econ 101.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barriers_to_entry



Creating barriers to entry is an antisocial tactic that harms consumers and society at large.

It is the responsibility of moral consumers to avoid spending their money with companies that use these regressive tactics.


I think it’s important to distinguish types of barriers to entry. Some are “real” while others are “artificial”. For example, a real barrier to entry would be institutional knowledge about an industry while an artificial one would be an arbitrary TOS clause.


And disallowing scraping or making it difficult while refraining from providing an API for the same data is the arbitrary kind. The default state of the web is that it's trivially scrapable - you have to go out of your way to make it harder.


[flagged]


HN is not an appropriate place to project your moral insecurities in this manner.


HN is a place where you feel free to make personal attacks.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: