Is web scraping AI legal?
A few years ago, we ran an SEO analysis that generated almost 50.
000 pages from the US Patent and Trademark Office website. The pages that came from our crawler were all processed automatically and we kept the results ready for anyone that asked us for them. This resulted in millions of dollars spent and it's all thanks to web scraping, or as it's called in the industry, automated web browsing.
It is clear that automated web browsing has become a widely used and increasingly popular way of increasing search engine rankings, driving traffic to websites and generating revenues. But this also makes a number of stakeholders uncomfortable. Especially, since web scraping is considered by many to be a crime.
It is an interesting and complex question. Is web scraping legal or not? Websites and their owners like to claim that automated web browsing is illegal, since it might lead to relevance hacking. It is quite obvious that these claims are not based on law, but on pure business interests. The websites try to profit from the trust in the web, they are looking for a solution that can help them stay competitive. The whole web scraper story started with Google, and they don't want to risk the trust in search algorithms.
But there are no actual laws against web scraping. Sure, there are a few cases and lawsuits against web scrapers, but they often end with fines, not with a prison sentence. The cases that exist don't cover automated web browsing, because the courts weren't aware of that at the time when they made their rulings. And even if the cases had been related to automated web browsing, they would most likely not have resulted in a conviction. In 2025, US prosecutors ended the case against the creator of an automated web browser called wget. He was found guilty of violating a court order and served a total of three months in prison.
There is a legal argument, though, that web scraping should be outlawed. The main argument is that automated web browsing leads to fraud. It is argued that companies that are scraping websites make it look like there is organic traffic coming from these websites. Companies like eXylead and SemRush do a great job in showing how fraudulent this may be. They are making money by hiding their activities from the websites they scrape. The problem is, that these companies make money by doing bad things.
Does Netflix allow web scraping?
I have written an application that makes use of the Netflix API for listing movies and TV shows, and I'd like to be able to get data in a way that I think is more elegant than building a REST API that is only allowed to be accessed with their own tools.
I am aware that they specifically say, in the terms and conditions, that scraping their website is prohibited. Does anyone know if it is actually possible? I mean, if it is, then maybe I could make the argument that it's okay because I'm not getting anything new from it.
Yes they do allow scraping.
Related Answers
How long does web scraping take?
As we know, data web scraping is a process of extracting data fro...
What is web crawling used for?
A web crawler doesn't know what on. What exactly is on the Interne...
What is the best free web scraping tool?
The advent of the internet has changed the way we do everything, in...