nexcom28 - its called site scraping or content scraping - do a search on Google for those terms and you will find loads of stories and posts about it - recently some SEs have tried to start fighting back but there are still scripts that will do it for you - and people that make money off doing it for their clients as posted above.
Nothing is really "illegal" in the game of the SEs - they are just another site - if you can figure out how to manipulate them at the expense of others - and think that you are doing something you dont have any moral qualms about - it can be very profitable.
As mentioned a few times it can also get you kicked from SEs but a good operator expects those types of things and always has more to go around.
There are other cleaner ways to get the same placements in the SEs - but Ill be damned if Ill share those
