tech
"Google and Reddit do not own the Internet," web scraper says after court win
Google’s and Reddit’s use of DMCA to fight web scraper is bizarre, expert says.
TL;DR
- Google and Reddit are using the DMCA to prevent AI bots from scraping their search results.
- Google sued SerpApi for allegedly circumventing anti-scraping technology and selling scraped content.
- Reddit filed a similar lawsuit against SerpApi and Perplexity for scraping Reddit content that appears in Google results.
- A court dismissed Google's lawsuit, ruling it lacked DMCA standing as it did not own the content in search results.
- Experts describe the use of the DMCA in these cases as 'bizarre' and 'not what the law had contemplated.'
- SerpApi argues that Google and Reddit are attempting to control public internet data and harm the open web.
- Google plans to amend its complaint to argue that 'knowledge panels' contain licensed copyrighted content.
- The legal battles raise concerns about the 're-enclosure' of the web and the impact on research, journalism, and public health reporting.