Court Dismisses Google’s DMCA Claims Against SerpApi Over Scraping

Image credit: Search Engine Journal

A federal court in the United States dismissed Google‘s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) anti-circumvention claims against SerpApi on Tuesday, ruling that blocking automated access to public search results does not constitute circumvention if the results contain no copyrighted content.

Chief U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers granted the dismissal, limiting Google’s ability to use the DMCA against services that scrape publicly available search engine results pages (SERPs).

The court determined that Google failed to demonstrate its technical measures, like SearchGuard, were protecting copyrighted material when applied to general public search results.

Claims related to search results containing licensed images were also dismissed, though with permission for Google to amend its complaint. The court stated that Google had not adequately shown authorization from copyright owners to protect their content using SearchGuard.

Google has 21 days to amend its complaint, specifically needing to present facts demonstrating that copyright owners authorized Google to implement SearchGuard as a protective measure for their content.

SerpApi CEO Julien Khaleghy described the ruling as a significant victory for open access to public data, according to a statement from the organization.

The court rejected SerpApi’s argument that Google lacked standing to sue, clarifying that DMCA anti-circumvention protection is not exclusively limited to copyright owners.

The ruling clarifies the scope of DMCA anti-circumvention provisions, indicating that merely restricting automated access to public, non-copyrighted information does not trigger DMCA protections.

Google initiated the lawsuit against SerpApi, a company that provides real-time search engine results data, alleging that SerpApi’s actions circumvented its technical protection measures.

The decision could influence other companies involved in scraping public web data and how search engine providers like Google attempt to protect their platforms.

Source: Search Engine Journal