SerpApi, a company specializing in web scraping tools, has responded to Google’s copyright lawsuit, asserting that Google lacks copyright ownership over its search results. In a recent motion to dismiss the lawsuit, SerpApi contends that Google’s search engine is built on content from various sources and that Google itself engages in web scraping activities.
In the legal battle initiated by Google in December, SerpApi was accused of improperly accessing and scraping Google’s search results, allegedly bypassing Google’s protective measures. However, SerpApi argues that it merely follows practices similar to Google, albeit on a smaller scale, by scraping public websites to provide relevant data to its customers.
According to SerpApi, Google does not assert ownership over the information it retrieves from websites, implying that this data is not protected by copyright laws. The company further defends its actions by stating that bypassing Google’s anti-scraping tool, SearchGuard, is not a violation, as the tool primarily safeguards Google’s business interests rather than copyrighted content.
This legal dispute highlights the complexities surrounding web scraping practices and raises questions about the ownership and usage of publicly available data online.
Source: The Verge