you should choose what you think is best for your site, if what hat isn't working for you you can try other darker options, just make sure you don't get penalized and you should be good
Regardless of what color hat you decide to wear you should proceed with caution to avoid being penalized
that's what alice cooper said too http://www.absolutelyrics.com/lyrics/view/alice_cooper/no_more_mr._nice_guy/
Someone placing their link on every forum and blog they can get their hands on would have the same argument. Some would call them spammers. They would call themselves business people with the right to advertise their product. I believe gray is the norm and that nobody is truly white. We're really discussing shades of gray here.
Black hat techniques: 60% effort 40% gain. White hat techniques: 60% gain 40% effort. Gray hat techniques: 70% gain 30% effort.
You must be employing the wrong techniques .... those numbers are screwed .... my blackhat = 0% effort .... most blackhat I use is to make things easier on me and with as much automation as possible.
Actually scraping content is copyright infringement and is totally illegal in any respectable country.
Shame the people with legit sites, trying to make something they are proud of, cannot automate deleting the tons of spam thrown at their sites with the "automation" you describe, just to grab a selfish quick dollar.
...before to go gray hat, it is better you think about it twice, because you may not be luck as other people who are in it. It is better you continue with white hat techniques you will get there with hard work. Good luck
If you are using an up to date script - you should be fine, if your script is out dated and you haven't updated the script - then you may feel the spam bots presence .... I am actually talking about my own sites on automation and not spamming other sites ....
I guess anything should be balance. Just like Yin and Yang the Tao logo. Do both of them but keep control and stay on radar.