Tesla CEO Elon Musk
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A federal judge in California has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Elon Musk’s Mr.
X, formerly Twitter, claims that the company “scraped data from X” and sold it “using elaborate technical measures to circumvent Company X’s anti-scraping techniques.” I sued Bright Data. X also alleged that the company violated its terms of service and copyright.
Data scraping occurs when automated programs scour publicly accessible websites to collect data. This data can later be used for a wide range of purposes, including training artificial intelligence models and targeting online ads. One agency said the practice is generally legal in the United States if it involves scraping publicly accessible data. 2022 The ruling ends a long legal battle involving LinkedIn.
According to reports, X had previously sought more than $1 million in damages from an unknown defendant for “unlawfully collecting data related to Texas residents.” suit It was filed in Dallas County.
In dismissing the lawsuit, Judge William Alsup wrote, “While providing a safe haven, Company X exercises its right to exclude copyright owners and collects fees from anyone who wishes to extract and copy the content of User I want it to go both ways.”
Giving social networks complete control over the collection and use of public web data “risks the possibility of creating an information monopoly that harms the public interest,” the judge said. He added that X “doesn’t care about protecting the privacy of X users” and is “happy to allow X users’ content to be extracted and copied as long as a fee is paid.”
Representatives for Company X did not respond to requests for comment.
Meta previously filed a complaint against Bright Data, but also lost.
BrightData said in an emailed statement that its victory over Meta and X shows that public information online “belongs to all of us and any attempt to deny public access will fail.” said.
“What is happening now is unprecedented, and its impact will impact business in general, research, AI, and more,” the company said in a statement.
Bright Data says it only scrapes public data that anyone can view without logging in. At the time of filing the lawsuit, X had made the information collected by Bright Data available to anyone.
