Reddit's unusual DMCA lawsuit over scraping from Google search results is still moving forward. On Friday, US District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer largely denied a motion to dismiss from SerpApi, a web scraper accused of working with Perplexity AI to access copyrighted Reddit content through Google results.
The decision does not mean Reddit has won. It means the court found that, at this early point, Reddit has plausibly described a conspiracy in which SerpApi supplied a product designed to get around Google access controls and Perplexity AI paid to use it.
Why the ruling matters
The case sits at the center of a larger fight over AI scraping, public search results, and who can control access to online conversations once they appear outside the original platform. Reddit is arguing that the issue is not merely that its pages can be found online. Its claim focuses on whether protected material was reached through circumvention of a technological measure.
For Reddit, the legal path has several parts. It must show that SerpApi and Perplexity AI conspired to access snippets of works covered by the Copyright Act. It also must show that those works were protected by a technological measure that effectively controlled access. Finally, it must show that the defendants got around that measure.
That framework is important because Google recently lost a similar early-stage fight. In that case, the court found Google had not shown that rights holders such as Reddit had authorized the search engine to stop scraping of protected content. Google told Ars that it planned to amend its complaint.
SerpApi told Ars that Google and Reddit were trying to “use the DMCA to wall off the open Internet.” That argument remains part of the broader dispute: whether public search results can be treated as ordinary public information, or whether technical barriers and licensing terms can change the legal analysis.
What Reddit argued
Reddit's stronger position, according to Engelmayer's opinion, came from the way it described its relationship with Google. Unlike Google, Reddit did more than make a general claim that Google has licenses to show copyrighted material. The court said Reddit went “beyond the bare allegation” by pointing to its licensing agreement with Google.
Reddit argued that the agreement limits certain uses of Reddit data. It also argued that partners such as Google agree to delete posts that Reddit identifies when users remove content. According to Reddit, “millions of posts” are deleted monthly.
That deletion issue is central to Reddit's theory of harm. If outside companies obtain Reddit material through scraping and then feed it into an AI answer engine, Reddit says it becomes harder to honor removals that users expect the platform to respect. Reddit also argued that deleted posts remaining in Perplexity AI's answer engine can hurt Reddit's reputation and profits.
Engelmayer also addressed the timing of Google's technology. The source article notes that Google's technology was invented more than a year after Google and Reddit made their licensing deal. The judge still found Reddit's theory plausible at this stage, reasoning that it would be impractical to require partners to revise licensing deals whenever new security methods are introduced.
The fight is not settled
The ruling leaves major questions for discovery. Engelmayer noted that SerpApi and Perplexity AI may still prove that Reddit never authorized Google to protect Reddit content in search results. That would matter because authorization is a key piece of Reddit's attempt to distinguish its case from Google's dismissed claims.
SerpApi may also have another path to strengthen its defense. A footnote in Engelmayer's opinion suggested that SerpApi could benefit if it proves that all publicly accessible content in Google search results is not protected by the Copyright Act.
Not every Reddit claim survived. SerpApi and Perplexity AI succeeded in getting Reddit's unjust enrichment and unfair competition claims dismissed, because both were preempted by the Copyright Act.
Perplexity AI did not immediately respond to Ars' request for comment. Jeff Homrig, a lawyer for SerpApi, told Ars that “the facts are on our side.” He also said SerpApi accesses public search results rather than Reddit's platform.
What Reddit wants from the court
If Reddit ultimately wins, the case could help it pressure AI scrapers to use licensing agreements instead of scraping routes. Reddit is seeking an injunction that would block SerpApi and Perplexity AI from accessing both Reddit and Google websites. It is also seeking an injunction against circumvention of Google SearchGuard and another order tied to previously scraped data.
A Reddit spokesperson welcomed the ruling, saying it moved the company closer to holding “bad actors accountable.” The company also said it supports responsible access to public content while opposing companies that bypass protections and profit from Reddit communities without permission.
Still, the outcome is hard to predict. Meredith Rose, a DMCA expert with Public Knowledge, told Ars last week that Google and Reddit seemed to be “sort of grasping at whatever tool is available” as AI scraping has risen over the past three years. She also said Reddit appeared oddly positioned under the DMCA theory because the Google case described who may have standing to sue: the copyright owner, an exclusive licensee, or the party deploying and manufacturing the relevant technological protection measure.
For now, the practical result is narrow but significant. Reddit has not proven that SerpApi or Perplexity AI violated the DMCA. But it has kept enough of its case alive to force a deeper factual fight over licensing, search-result scraping, Google access controls, and the boundaries of AI data collection.