A lawsuit filed by Elon Musk’s X Corp against an Israeli data-scraping company, Bright Dta Ltd was dismissed by a San Fransico based, U S District Judge, William Aslup. According to the lawsuit, Bright Data has been unlawfully copying and selling content from a prominent socill media platform, as well as providing tools enabling others to do the same.
The ruling by Judge Alsup’s, delivered on Thursday, stated that X Corp, formerly known as Twitter, failed to provide sufficient evidence that Bright Data Ltd breached its user agreement. Alsup clarified that the use of scraping tools, while contentious, does not inherently constitute fraud. He cautioned against granting social media companies unchecked authority over the use of public data, warning of potential information monopolies that could harm the public interest.
Moreover, Judge Alsup rejected X Corp’s claim of “de facto copyright ownership” over user-generated content made available to the public. The decision marks a significant setback for X Corp’s legal pursuits in this matter.
In response to the ruling, lawyers representing X Corp did not immediately provide comments on Friday. However, Or Lenchner, the Chief Executive of Bright Data, welcomed the decision, asserting that public information on the web belongs to everyone and any attempts to restrict access will be unsuccessful.
X Corp has been granted opportunity to revise its complaint by Judge Alsup which sought unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for breach of contract, trespass, and misappropriation. The lawsuit against Bright Data was initiated by the San Francisco-based company in July of the previous year.
This legal saga involving data scraping isn’t unique to X Corp. In January, a separate San Francisco judge ruled in favor of Bright Data, dismissing claims of terms of service violation brought by Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook). Meta withdrew its lawsuit against Bright Data the following month.
In a related case in March, yet another San Francisco judge dismissed X Corp’s lawsuit against the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate. X Corp alleged that articles published by the nonprofit, based on scraped data, were deterring advertisers, resulting in financial losses amounting to millions of dollars. X Corp has since appealed the decision.
Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022 remains a significant aspect of the broader context surrounding these legal battles. His diverse business portfolio also includes Tesla, the electric car company.
The case between X Corp and Bright Data Ltd is officially recorded as X Corp v Bright Data Ltd in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, under case number 23-03698.
