Artist platform Cara scraped again, founder calls it targeted infringement
Artist platform Cara was scraped for the second time, with its data uploaded to Hugging Face for AI training. Founder Jingna Zhang (zemotion) posted a thread on August 18 calling it targeted infringement, noting the incident cost the platform thousands of dollars in server fees. The scraper claims the act was legal, while creators have no effective recourse.
Confirmed
- Cara says its data was scraped again and posted to Hugging Face; the scraper claims legality
- The unauthorized scrape caused thousands of dollars in extra server costs
- Zhang argued that anyone wanting training images could use existing non-consensual datasets like LAION, or scrape platforms like Bluesky and Mastodon where crawling is legally permitted; targeting an explicit opt-out platform like Cara is a targeted attack — "because Cara dared to say no"
- She noted that while anything on the internet is technically scrapable, this should not justify harming others, and current mechanisms are deeply unfair to individuals and small businesses
Why it matters
- The incident undercuts the "scraping is harmless" argument: victims' wishes are violated, they bear real economic costs, and they lack effective recourse
- Cara exists as a haven for artists who opt out of AI scraping; being targeted anyway shows opt-out declarations carry no practical force, exposing institutional gaps in data compliance and creator rights protection
2026-08-18 ~ 2026-08-18 · 6 related posts
- Episode 1: Artist platform Cara scraped again, founder calls it targeted infringement(2026-08-18, 6 posts)
- Episode 2: Cara Founder Condemns Doxxing, Calls for Laws Against Non-Consensual Scraping(2026-08-18, 2 posts)
Primary sources
- [source] Artist Platform Cara Scraped Again, Raises Questions on AI Training Data Compliance — zemotion · 2026-08-18
- Cara Founder: Scrapers Already Have LAION and More, Why Target Us? — zemotion · 2026-08-18
- [source] Cara Founder: LAION and Bluesky Already Provide Data — Scraping Cara Is Purely Targeted — zemotion · 2026-08-18
- Non-consensual scraping cost Cara thousands in server fees — zemotion · 2026-08-18
- Artist Cites Thousands in Losses Due to Unconsented AI Scraping — zemotion · 2026-08-18
- Cara platform targeted despite explicit opt-out from AI scraping — zemotion · 2026-08-18