Unreported / Non-Citable
Background
Ted Entertainment and creator Matt Fisher alleged that ByteDance accessed and scraped their YouTube videos for commercial purposes. They claimed ByteDance bypassed YouTube’s technological restrictions and thereby violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s anti-circumvention provision.
ByteDance moved to dismiss on two fronts. It argued that the plaintiffs lacked Article III standing to be in federal court and that the complaint did not state a statutory claim under sections 1201(a) and 1203 of the DMCA.
The Court’s Holding
The court denied the motion to dismiss. It concluded that the plaintiffs plausibly alleged a concrete injury and a statutory right to sue under section 1203.
The complaint also sufficiently alleged that technological measures protected access to the videos and that ByteDance circumvented those measures when it obtained the works. At the pleading stage, those allegations were enough to allow the anti-circumvention claim to proceed; the court did not decide ultimate liability or damages.
Key Takeaways
- A plaintiff alleging unauthorized scraping must identify a concrete injury traceable to the defendant, not simply a disagreement with platform use.
- DMCA anti-circumvention claims depend on identifying technological measures that effectively control access to copyrighted works.
- Allegations that a defendant bypassed those access controls can survive a motion to dismiss even though proof remains for later stages.
- The DMCA may provide a cause of action distinct from a conventional infringement theory when the challenged conduct is circumvention itself.
Why It Matters
The ruling keeps alive a closely watched theory for creators whose online content is collected through automated tools. California technology companies that acquire web content for data analysis or model development should inventory the access controls they encounter and avoid treating publicly viewable content as necessarily free of anti-circumvention restrictions.
For rights holders, the order highlights the importance of pleading the actual barrier that was bypassed and connecting that conduct to their own works. General allegations of scraping are less useful than a technically specific account of how access was controlled and defeated.