Reddit keeps its strange DMCA fight over Google search results alive

A U.S. District Judge has largely refused to dismiss Reddit's lawsuit against web scraper SerpApi, which is accused of conspiring with Perplexity AI to scrape copyrighted Reddit content from Google search results in violation of the DMCA. The judge found Reddit's conspiracy allegations plausible at this stage. The ruling comes shortly after a separate court dismissed a similar claim by Google, though Google plans to amend its complaint. SerpApi contends that both companies are improperly attempting to use copyright law to restrict content they do not own. This development signals that despite Google's parallel setback, Reddit can continue pursuing legal theories that seek to hold intermediaries like scrapers and AI firms liable under the DMCA for accessing copyrighted materials surfaced by search engines, potentially setting boundaries for how public web content can be used to train AI systems or power search-related services.