A U.S. federal judge largely denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Reddit against the web scraper SerpApi late last month [1].
The ruling maintains a legal challenge that could redefine how AI companies and scrapers access copyrighted data indexed by search engines. If Reddit succeeds, it may restrict the ability of third-party tools to harvest data from search results to feed large language models.
Reddit alleges that SerpApi conspired with Perplexity AI to illegally scrape copyrighted content from the platform [1]. According to the complaint, this activity occurred by extracting Reddit data specifically from Google search results rather than directly from Reddit's own servers [1]. The lawsuit invokes the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to argue that these actions constitute copyright infringement [1].
This legal battle runs parallel to a separate conflict involving Google. Google sued SerpApi in December 2025 [2]. In that case, Google alleged that SerpApi circumvented its anti-scraping technology to sell scraped content through an unauthorized “Google Search API” service [2]. While Google has faced setbacks in its own litigation, the judge's recent decision allows Reddit's specific claims to move forward [1].
SerpApi has pushed back against the legal theories presented by the platforms. A spokesperson for SerpApi said, "Google and Reddit do not own the Internet" [1].
The case now moves toward further discovery to determine if the alleged conspiracy between the scraper and the AI firm occurred, and whether the method of extraction violates copyright law [1].
“"Google and Reddit do not own the Internet."”
This case highlights a growing tension between platform owners and the AI ecosystem. By targeting the 'middleman' scraper rather than just the AI model, Reddit is attempting to close a loophole where companies avoid direct site-scraping by using search engine indexes. A victory for Reddit would strengthen the legal standing of content owners to block the indirect harvesting of their data, potentially forcing AI companies to negotiate more direct licensing deals.
