SerpApi says Google is the pot calling the kettle black when it comes to scraping
The Register
February 21, 2026
AI-Generated Deep Dive Summary
SerpApi, a Texas-based web scraping company, is challenging Google's lawsuit against it for allegedly violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by bypassing anti-scraping measures. In a motion to dismiss filed in a California court, SerpApi argues that Google's own business model relied on extensive web scraping when it first launched, copying and indexing content without permission or distinction between copyrighted and non-copyrighted material. The company asserts that its scraping activities do not circumvent technological protections under the DMCA, as they involve accessing publicly available data without decrypting, disabling authentication systems, or breaching private information.
The legal battle began in December 2025 when Google sued SerpApi, alleging that its web scraping practices violated the DMCA by bypassing Google's anti-scraping technology, referred to internally as "SearchGuard." Google claims that SerpApi uses automated queries to misrepresent and evade these protections, thereby unlawfully accessing content such as licensed images and real-time data from Knowledge Panels. The search giant argues that SerpApi is reselling this content for profit while disregarding the rights of original providers.
SerpApi counters that its scraping activities are lawful under existing legal precedents, including *hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corp.* and *Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International*. These cases have established that scraping publicly accessible data does not
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Originally published on The Register on 2/21/2026