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ARTICLE · 25 AUGUST 2017

A Green Light for Screen Scraping? Proceed With Caution…

Proskauer Rose LLP
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Court Issues Injunction Barring Blocking of Scraping and Holds CFAA Likely Doesn't Apply

United StatesMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
Jeffrey Neuburger
Jeffrey Neuburger
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Court Issues Injunction Barring Blocking of Scraping and Holds CFAA Likely Doesn't Apply

Websites make information available to clients, users, customers and subscribers. Data aggregators, investors, competitors and others are always thinking of new and productive ways to use that data – typically, uses other than those for which the data is being made available. "Screen scraping" is one of the main technical tools used to harvest data from websites for such uses, and the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (the "CFAA"), 18 U.S.C. §1030,  has been one of the main legal tools used by website owners to challenge those scraping activities.

While the law relating to screen scraping  is unclear, a recent landmark decision from the Northern District of California, hiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn, Corp., 2017 WL 3473663 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 14, 2017), appears to limit the applicability of the CFAA as a tool against scraping. Indeed, in granting injunctive relief against

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