Reddit’s DMCA Case Over AI Scraping From Google Results Survives—for Now

Lead

Reddit’s unusual DMCA fight over Google search results is still alive. US District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer largely denied SerpApi’s motion to dismiss, finding that Reddit had plausibly alleged, at this early stage, a conspiracy in which SerpApi provided a product designed to bypass Google access controls and Perplexity AI paid to use it.

The case is notable because Reddit is not simply arguing that bots scraped Reddit directly. Instead, the company is trying to frame content snippets and Reddit material appearing through Google search as protected by technological measures. If those measures effectively controlled access, Reddit argues, bypassing them could implicate the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions.

Key points

• Reddit cleared an early procedural hurdle: The judge concluded that Reddit’s allegations against SerpApi were specific enough to proceed beyond the dismissal stage.
• The ruling differs from Google’s recent setback: Another court recently dismissed a similar Google action, finding that Google had not shown rights holders authorized it to protect their works in this way. Here, the judge said Reddit went further by pointing to its licensing relationship with Google and limits on certain uses of Reddit data.
• Deleted posts matter to Reddit’s theory: Reddit argued that its licensing arrangements require partners to honor removals when users delete content. Unauthorized scraping, it says, can leave removed posts available in AI answer engines, undermining user promises, reputation, and business interests.
• Not every claim survived: SerpApi and Perplexity AI did succeed in getting Reddit’s unjust enrichment and unfair competition claims dismissed because they were preempted by copyright law.

Why it matters

The heart of the dispute is not merely whether public webpages can be indexed or scraped. SerpApi’s position is that it accesses public search results, not Reddit’s own platform, and that public information does not become protected simply because a platform wants to monetize it. Reddit’s theory, by contrast, depends on authorization, licensing conditions, takedown obligations, and whether Google’s technical controls qualify under the DMCA.

If Reddit ultimately wins, it could strengthen platforms’ ability to pressure AI data collectors into licensing agreements. Reddit is seeking injunctions that would block SerpApi and Perplexity AI from accessing Reddit and Google websites, stop circumvention of Google SearchGuard, and prevent use of previously scraped data.

The outcome remains far from certain. The judge noted that discovery may show Reddit never authorized Google to protect its content in search results. SerpApi may also argue that not all publicly accessible content in Google results is protected by copyright. Legal experts cited by Ars suggested that companies facing the rapid rise of AI scraping may be reaching for whatever legal tools are available.

In that sense, the case is a proxy battle over the future of the open web. It asks whether DMCA anti-circumvention rules can be applied to search-result access and whether AI answer engines can rely on third-party scraping services without entering into platform licensing deals.

Source: Ars Technica AI