fischermx - 12:01 am on Mar 26, 2005 (gmt 0)

Saying they are illegal is like saying meta search engines are illegal

Sorry, pal, but metasearches that does html parsing directly from results, without paying for their queries are violating SE terms of services.
I would say that 99% of metasearches you find out there are illegal.

I would say that a manually generated scrapper, done in a directory-style, would have better luck in court than a metasearch.