alt Hacker NewsNot a lawyer, I'm guessing here. I'd assume the intention matters a lot. Scrape bots don't intend to cause trouble, they intend to get your data (for free). Same way as when some famous person tells people on Twitter to visit a website or when some poor blog gets the hug of death from HN. The intention wasn't to bring down the site.
Aside from that: is DDosing actually illegal (under US law)?
Right. Pretty sure it's illegal under EU law(s), and people were already condemned for it (but yes, in case ill intent was proven) - why wouldn't it be illegal under US law - it's basically akin to vandalism ?
(In other news, the Internet Archive got DDoSed today :(