@pluralistic Use this to your advantage: a bot-fee or anti-bot fee in Terms of Service (ToS) can be legally enforceable under contract law. If the bot operator clicks "I Agree" it is a binding, enforceable contract, and may include fees or damages. These must be a reasonable pre-estimate of actual damages/costs (bandwidth, server strain, API costs). In contrast, a robots.txt to enforce fees is ineffective as it is a voluntary technical "honour system," not a legally binding contract.