A Green Light for Screen Scraping? Proceed With Caution...
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 LinkedIn's blocking of hiQ's scraping activities, the hiQ court noted that, by invoking the CFAA, "[c]ompanies could prevent competitors or consumer groups from visiting their websites to learn about their products or analyze pricing." While the hiQ decision suggests that, at least in some circumstances, scraping of publicly available websites does not give rise to a cause of action under the CFAA, scrapers beware – the road may still have some rough patches ahead.
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Court Issues Injunction Barring Blocking of Scraping and Holds CFAA Likely Doesn't Apply
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