If someone just wreits a script for their own use, then that's unlikely to be a problem, because each user (by IP address) is already rate limited; so the most load that that one user can add to the system is one user's allowance-worth.However, if many users use that script (or, as another way of looking at it: if you write an app which queries musicbrainz, then release that app and it starts to acquire a user base), then now the amount of load it can add to our system is N users' worth.What made it necessary to take action in this case was the combination of several factors: (1) the load on our system increased significantly in a very short period of time; (2) the extra load was due to a substantial number of different users all making queries of the same kind. This suggests that maybe there's a new app out there querying musicbrainz, and all those users are using that new app. (3) The requests included no information (e.g. User-Agent string) which could help us work out what that app was.To be a good citizen, all you have to do is: If you're releasing an app which queries musicbrainz, then include a User-Agent header identifying your app, so that if there's a problem we can contact you. For added karma, let us know about your app, so we can work out the best way of getting you the data you need.