NLA Media Access launches free AI scraping detection service for publishers

A spoofed iPhone log showing 400 article visits on The Telegraph could belong to an unusually avid reader. But the same visitor might also read hundreds of articles from Newsquest and The Guardian.

That pattern “almost certainly is a bot,” NLA Media Access chief executive Henry Jones told Press Gazette.

NLA’s Collective Intelligence Advisory Service looks for those cross-publisher patterns, Press Gazette reported. The free service analyzes website data from participating publishers to identify possible unauthorized scraping.

The service builds on NLA’s existing Text Tracker, which helps publishers identify copyright infringement. The NLA Collective Intelligence Service page says the new offering targets publishers.

Press Gazette reported that Text Tracker has helped remove more than 150,000 pieces of infringing content this year. That total includes more than 40 entire websites.

Jones said publishers sometimes struggle to identify scrapers using data from one site.

“It’s essentially looking at who is accessing your website,” Jones said. Many visitors will simply be ordinary readers, he added.

But some visitors may scrape large amounts of content or ignore publishers’ robots.txt preferences. Comparing activity across several outlets can provide another signal.

Traffic that looks normal on one website may appear more suspicious when the same visitor accesses other sites heavily.

NLA tested the approach with Newsquest and three national publishers, including The Telegraph. Jones said the pilot identified companies in Eastern Europe and the Asia-Pacific region that were taking publisher content.

NLA contacted those companies, and some agreed to purchase licenses, according to Jones.

The organization already offers licenses that allow companies to scrape publisher websites for a fee. Jones said those agreements contain “very narrow guardrails” governing how companies can use the content.

He believes those arrangements could eventually generate “significant” revenue for publishers. That remains a long-term expectation rather than a reported result from the new service.

NLA could pursue further action when a suspected scraper refuses a license and continues collecting content.

“If they resist and don’t stop doing what they’re doing, then we will have all the evidence we need,” Jones said. He said NLA could then consider legal action.

NLA represents about 14,000 U.K. titles. Jones said collective action could make legal proceedings more affordable for individual publishers.

He expects many disputes to end with pre-action legal correspondence rather than litigation. However, he also expects some organizations to resist.

“In the next 18 months we will find examples of organisations that want to resist,” Jones said. He expects those disputes could eventually produce a formal collective action.

Press Gazette also connected the issue with Meta’s planned update to its commercial terms. Publishing groups argued that the proposal would grant Meta broad rights to scrape websites linked to business accounts.

Jones said Meta delayed the changes after international publishing organizations pushed back. He also said the company pledged further consultation.

NLA’s service focuses on a narrower issue: activity that one publisher’s traffic data may not clearly identify.

By combining data from participating outlets, NLA hopes to spot patterns that individual publishers may miss. It can then approach suspected scrapers about licensing or consider further action.

The outcome remains uncertain. Jones expects the service to identify disputes over the next 18 months that could lead to a formal collective action.