用旧法管新事:网站是数字财产,违规抓取构成侵权。
In the Mood to Exclude: Revitalizing Trespass to Chattels in the Era of GenAI Scraping
- 把网站视为可排除侵入的数字动产,而非单纯内容仓库。
- 抓取绕过访问控制并分流流量即构成可诉侵权,无需造成服务器损伤。
- 适合关注数据权属、数字权利保护的法律与科技从业者。
生成式AI公司正大规模网络爬取,其机器人以空前规模掠夺网页内容,绕过技术屏障训练数十亿美元模型,而创作者毫无所得。法院因误解产权保护范围,将网站视作知识产权的单纯存储库,忽视未造成服务器损害的侵入行为。该框架默认赋予AI公司访问权,却无视其带来的经济破坏。本文提出,内容可与网站分离;网站本身是集成的数字动产,应受与实体动产相同的排除权保护。当爬虫绕过访问控制、分流维系网站价值的流量时,即构成可诉的侵入行为。法律无需创设新规则,只需将既有财产权原则适用于数字空间。当前版权预决常限制可诉途径,使公平使用成为主要争议点。侵入动产之诉提供更优路径,根植于排除非法侵入的基本权利。复兴此诉由,不仅保护创作者,也维护数字生态。此类保护可遏制掠夺性爬取,维持创作激励,保障隐私与个人数据,守护自主表达。重申网站所有者排除权,对构建公平可持续的网络环境至关重要。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
GenAI companies are strip-mining the web. Their scraping bots harvest content at an unprecedented scale, circumventing technical barriers to fuel billion-dollar models while creators receive nothing. Courts have enabled this exploitation by misunderstanding what property rights protect online. The prevailing view treats websites as mere repositories of intellectual property and dismisses trespass claims absent server damage. That framework grants AI companies presumptive access while ignoring the economic devastation they inflict. But the content is severable from the website itself. This paper reframes the debate: websites are personal property as integrated digital assets subject to the same exclusionary rights as physical chattels. When scrapers bypass access controls and divert traffic that sustains a website's value, they commit actionable trespass. The law need not create new protections; it need only apply existing property principles to digital space. Courts and litigants have struggled to police unwanted, large-scale scraping because copyright preemption often narrows available claims, leaving copyright and its fair use defense as the primary battleground. Trespass to chattels offers a superior path, grounded in the fundamental right to exclude unwanted intrusions. Reviving this tort would protect not only content creators but also the digital ecosystem. Such protection would discourage exploitative scraping, preserve incentives for content creation, help protect privacy and personal data, and safeguard autonomy and expression. Reaffirming website owners' right to exclude is essential to maintaining a fair and sustainable online environment.
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