Google Sues Web Scraper for Stealing Search Results
has filed a lawsuit against SerpApi, a company that offers tools to scrape content on the web, including Google’s search results. SerpApi is accused of violating the Copyright Act by using “deceptive means” to automatically access and take Google’s search results “at an astonishing scale” before selling the data to customers. This is not the first time SerpApi has faced legal issues, as Reddit also sued the company in October for stealing content from its site.
How SerpApi Evades Bot-Blockers
SerpApi discovered a way around SearchGuard, a technology Google deployed earlier this year to block SerpApi from scraping its search results. To circumvent SearchGuard, SerpApi masks the hundreds of millions of automated queries it sends to Google each day to make them appear as if they are coming from human users. SerpApi’s founder described the process as “creating fake browsers using a multitude of IP addresses that Google sees as normal users.”
Google’s Copyright Concerns
Google argues that its search results include a “substantial” amount of copyrighted content, including images, which it displays on different modules within Search, like its Knowledge Panel. The company alleges that SerpApi “undermines” its investment in licenses to display copyrighted material by “making the content available to other services that need not incur similar costs.” Google asks the court to order SerpApi to stop the company from circumventing its restrictions against scraping.
What’s Next for SerpApi?
The lawsuit against SerpApi is ongoing, and it remains to be seen how the company will respond to Google’s allegations. Meanwhile, Reddit’s lawsuit against SerpApi is still pending, and it will be interesting to see how the two cases play out.
Conclusion
Google’s lawsuit against SerpApi highlights the ongoing struggle between tech companies and web scrapers. As the use of AI tools continues to grow, it’s likely that we’ll see more cases like this in the future.
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