July 27, 2026
Scrape fight: now THAT indexed people
Judge Rejects Google's Attempt to DMCA Its Way Out of Being Scraped
Google got called out for trying to stop others doing what built its empire
TLDR: A judge tossed Google’s attempt to use copyright law to block scraping of its search pages, at least for now. Commenters zeroed in on the irony, mocking Google as hypocritical and debating whether open search results should stay accessible because it affects how information online gets controlled.
Google tried to use a copyright law meant for digital locks to stop SerpAPI from scraping its search results, and a judge basically said: not so fast. The case was dismissed for now, with the door still open for Google to try again, but the online crowd was far more interested in the sheer audacity of it all. The dominant mood? One word: hypocrisy. Commenters were absolutely feasting on the irony that a company famous for indexing and copying the web suddenly wanted legal protection from being copied itself.
That hypocrisy charge became the thread’s main punchline. One reader summed up the vibe with the brutally efficient “Hypocrisy-rich.” Another went full Victorian supervillain, joking: “You are trying to kidnap what I have rightfully stolen.” Ouch. That line alone captures why people found this story so delicious: it feels like a giant of the internet trying to pull the ladder up behind itself.
But it wasn’t all dunks and memes. There was real confusion and debate too. One commenter asked the practical question everyone was thinking: does this mean scraping Google is now legal? Another argued that scrapeable search pages matter because they can help expose shady ads and scammy visa sites that show up in results. So beneath the jokes is a bigger fight: who gets to control access to public-facing information online? For the community, the ruling wasn’t just a legal setback for Google — it was a dramatic little morality play about power, control, and internet karma.
Key Points
- •A judge dismissed Google’s DMCA Section 1201 lawsuit against SerpAPI, while allowing Google the option to refile.
- •The article says Google’s complaint targeted SerpAPI for scraping Google search results pages.
- •The piece situates the dispute within broader attempts to restrict web data access as AI increases the value of scraped content.
- •The article compares Google’s case with an ongoing Reddit lawsuit against SerpAPI and Perplexity involving scraped access to Reddit content through Google results.
- •According to the article, the court found Google’s anti-circumvention theory was an improper extension of DMCA Section 1201, a provision originally associated with DRM protection.