Tech

Anti-Circumvention Laws Raise the Cost of Knowledge

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Based on a feed excerpt; full article content has not been acquired. Source evidence retrieved 27/10/2026, 00:20:25 UTC.

Briefings

Reddit sued SerpAPI and Perplexity for using anti-circumvention laws to block access to Reddit's data-sharing arrangement with Google. A federal judge ruled the lawsuit could proceed, casting legal uncertainty over research. The core finding is that the law targets physical media encryption, not open web data, yet courts have applied it to Reddit's visible posts. This creates a barrier where only wealthy institutions can access information, potentially increasing the cost of knowledge.

Key points

• Reddit sued SerpAPI and Perplexity for using anti-circumvention laws to block access to Reddit's data-sharing arrangement with Google.
• A federal district judge ruled in July that Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act applied to Reddit's open posts, casting legal uncertainty over research.

Context

Reddit closed APIs and limited UI features since the rise of AI, positioning itself as a gatekeeper. It struck a lucrative data-sharing arrangement with Google. SerpAPI offers automated access to Google search results and is used by Perplexity. Reddit sued to stop these tools from bypassing Reddit's arrangement with Google.

Limitations

Evidence is limited to Reddit's lawsuit and a federal district judge's ruling. The judge's decision casts legal uncertainty over research but does not confirm the law's application to all open web data. The source does not provide additional background on the broader impact of this ruling.

Generated by Bittrees-hosted qwen35-2b sha256:aaf42c8b7c3c on 27/10/2026, 01:26:26 UTC. Based on publisher-provided feed evidence; may not cover the full original article. Check the source for details.

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