Court Tosses Google’s DMCA Suit Against Scraper SerpApi
A judge dismissed Google’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) case against scraper SerpApi, ruling search results are public facts. To refile, Google may need to admit the extent of unlicensed content in its own search results.
July 28, 2026 – 10:40 pm
Image by: Solen Feyissa
Google built one of the world’s largest companies by scraping the entire web without permission. This week, a federal judge told Google it cannot stop others from doing the same.
On July 20, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers dismissed Google’s lawsuit against SerpApi, which scrapes Google search results and resells them as structured data. Google had sued in December, claiming SerpApi circumvented its anti-bot defenses to lift copyrighted material.
Why the Case Fell Apart
The court found that search results are not copyrighted material. The DMCA provision Google used, Section 1201, only protects technology guarding copyrighted works. Google’s barrier, called SearchGuard, guards its search results.
Plain results like URLs, snippets, and factual index data are public facts, not works, the judge ruled, throwing out those claims with no chance to refile.
"Google has not alleged a plausible violation of the DMCA," she wrote.
The Corner Google’s In
Google has one narrow path to regain momentum: refile within 21 days on a smaller claim covering licensed snippets in its knowledge panels. To do this, Google would have to argue that these panels contain copyrighted content it is authorized to protect. This could invite rights holders whose work fills its results—and potentially its AI Overviews—to sue Google for the same scraping it complains about.
"They have talked themselves into a little bit of a corner," said Meredith Rose, a DMCA specialist at the nonprofit Public Knowledge.
Google plans to file an amended complaint, stating they are "pleased to see that the Court rejected nearly all of SerpApi’s legal arguments."
What Google Was Really Protecting
Search data is more valuable than ever. Chatbots need access to the web, and Google offers no official search API. Thus, second-hand access through firms like SerpApi is the main route to Google’s index. Its customers include Nvidia, Uber, Adobe, and the AI search engine Perplexity.
SerpApi framed the dismissal as a victory for everyone but Google and Reddit, accusing them of trying to "weaponize the DMCA to wall off the open Internet."