Scraping is Fraud?

http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2005/oct/24.html

This guy seems to be saying that scraping and splogs combined with adsense makes it fraud. I don't really see how it can be considered fraud. As long as people are actually clicking on the links isn't that what AdWords is all about? If anyone had a position to take action against scrapers, wouldn't it be the person who had their content stolen? Then they could claim the traffic the scraped site got would have gone to their site instead as well as the adsense revenue. The problem is that scrapers don't just take one site's content, they take thousands. Maybe they should try a class action suit lol. Basically I am saying I don't foresee any scrapers getting in trouble (MAYBE their adsense accounts canceled) in the very near future. Its just not in enough people's interest. Google still gets paid, the advertisers still get traffic, its just the publishers that are getting screwed and they dont complain loudly enough.

What is your take on it?

The only thing that seems to be happening sooner (or later) is: the publishers WILL get screwed and they WON'T complain loudly enough.

What exactly is scraping? I have noticed that a lot of site are using text and tags from my sites. Is that scraping???

Scraping and splogs is not fraud, but could be very costly and illegal if it involves stealing copyrighted content. I had a web site selling cod fishing equipment , I would not care if the visitor clicked on the adsense on a fishing splog or on a sea fishing forum as long as the visitor ended up buying stuff.

People clicking ads on their own websites are a much bigger problem, because they would be stealing from me.

I must agree with you Sorvoja.
From an advertiser point of view there's absolutely no difference where the clicks are coming from as long as they convert.