McCarthyLG With web scraping and the law, there are some things that almost everyone knows to be true. And there are some things that almost everyone thinks they know to be true that are actually false. One of the things that almost everyone knows to be true is that web scraping is prohibited in nearly every … Read More
The second “circuit split” we’ll look into in this series is disagreements among federal circuits with how to apply the DMCA. 17 U.S.C. § 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has a series of provisions aimed at targeting parties that engage in “anti-circumvention” of protected works. This law was designed in the early days … Read More
This post explains why §301 copyright preemption splits matter and previews how each circuit treats contract‑based scraping claims. I’ve written over 3000 words on this subject before, but this is probably the most understudied and under-litigated issue in the world of web scraping. Preemption means that federal law overrides state law when the two are … Read More
When it comes to web-scraping legal issues, people want easy answers. They want to know if web scraping is legal or it isn’t. Unfortunately, the truth is rarely as simple as that. The reason is two-fold: First, context always matters in web scraping. The nuances of when, where, what, and how you’re scraping matter in … Read More
TL;DR The EU Data Act becomes an enforceable law on September 12, 2025. It requires sharing of data from all connected products or services. It applies to any US business that has data in its possession from connected products or services that is above a certain size threshold. Most US companies are not at all … Read More
Plenty of people have written about whether AI is going to replace lawyers. Leaving that question aside, not enough people have focused on the way widespread use of AI is going be used as evidence in legal proceedings. Throughout modern times, when people had legal questions, they asked lawyers. And if they formed an attorney-client … Read More
I was recently in a high-stakes negotiation with a skilled negotiator. At the outset of the negotiation, he performed a few small gestures that made the parties feel comfortable with one another, and then he began his negotiation with a request: He asked us “to assume positive intent.” I smiled and nodded. It’s a nice … Read More
Automation is everywhere. From robotic process automation (RPA) to AI-driven decision-making, businesses are integrating automation into their decision-making processes like never before. However, with these advancements come critical legal considerations that companies must address or face the wrath regulators—or worse, plaintiffs’ lawyers! One general principle that businesses should understand is that automation will usually be … Read More
Probably around half of all internet traffic comes from bots or scraping. Despite that fact, there isn’t much guidance out there for how to comply with privacy laws when scraping. Notably, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) impose strict compliance requirements on companies collecting, storing, and processing user … Read More
It was five years ago when I first published the comprehensive guide to legal issues with web scraping. It was just after the seminal hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn case where a few folks wrote articles proclaiming that “web scraping is legal.” And I thought the world needed a more nuanced analysis of the legal issues … Read More