The fight is seemingly far from over, though, with Engelmayer noting that SerpApi and Perplexity AI may prove through discovery that Reddit never authorized Google to protect its content in search results. SerpApi may also strengthen its defense if it can prove that all publicly accessible content in Google search results is not protected by the Copyright Act, a footnote in Engelmayer’s opinion suggested.
Last week, a DMCA expert with Public Knowledge, Meredith Rose, told Ars that Google and Reddit seemed to be “sort of grasping at whatever tool is available” in the face of the sudden, continuous rise of AI scraping over the past three years. And Reddit in particular appeared weirdly positioned in its DMCA claim because “the judge in the Google case said, ‘Well, in order to have standing to bring a lawsuit under the DMCA, you can be the copyright owner or the exclusive licensee or the person who is deploying and manufacturing the technological protection measure at issue,’” Rose told Ars.
And confusingly, “Reddit is none of those things.” But Rose did acknowledge that DMCA rulings seemed to be more about “vibes,” suggesting that it may be hard to predict a winner or loser in this fight just yet.
This week wasn’t a total loss for SerpApi and Perplexity AI, which did manage to get Reddit’s unjust enrichment and unfair competition claims tossed, since they were both preempted by the Copyright Act.
Asked for comment, Jeff Homrig, a lawyer for SerpApi, told Ars that “we remain confident in our position. The court has decided to hear the facts; the facts are on our side. SerpApi accesses public search results, not Reddit’s platform, and public information does not become protected because a platform wants to charge for it. We look forward to making that case.”
Perplexity AI did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment.
Advance Publications, which owns Ars Technica parent Condé Nast, is the largest shareholder in Reddit.