"Combined with earlier moves like removing &num=100 and tightening BotGuard/SearchGuard, Google is steadily raising the cost of naive SERP scraping."

Another "move" is suing companies like Autom, e.g., SerpApi

Google's Amended Complaint from their suit against SerpApi

https://ia801008.us.archive.org/25/items/gov.uscourts.cand.4...

"30. Copyright holders have authorized Google to implement access controls like SearchGuard for the content they license to Google, and in some cases insisted that Google do so. Googles authorization takes many forms. For example, Google has an agreement with a prominent licensing partner that holds copyrights to millions of works that it licenses Google to use in its Search results. Under the parties agreement, versions of which date back to 2017, Google is not only authorized, it is obligated to use commercially reasonable efforts to safeguard the licensed content against unauthorized third-party access. Other license agreements contain similar obligations. For example, another major content provider requires that Google ensure the content it licenses will not be available for download by third parties, thereby authorizing the implementation of technical access controls."

"31. In other cases, Googles authorization to implement access control measures like SearchGuard is part and parcel of the grant of licenses themselves, as Google and its licensors recognize that the value of the licensed rights would be undermined if others were free to access, take and resell the licensed content without restriction. For example, Google has a licensing agreement with Reddit, under which Reddit licenses Google to use the copyrighted content of both Reddit and its users in Search Services."

"32. Googles licensing partners have also expressly requested that Google prevent unauthorized access to licensed content. For example, when Reddit suspected that scrapers like SerpApi were accessing, taking, and reselling the content that Reddit had licensed to Google, it specifically asked Google to employ technical measures to prevent such unauthorized appropriation."

But this does not account for material that is not covered by the "license with a prominent licensing partner", its license with "another major content provider" or its agreement with Reddit

Google not only uses SearchGuard on SERPs containing links to the content covered by these licenses, it uses SearchGuard on _all_ SERPs

Google needs more than a "goto" update. It needs to update its terms to require _all_ copyright holders for the materials it has indexed and cached to give Google authorisation to use "technological protection measures" to deny access to certain members of the public, e.g., Google's perceived competitors including any Google user who "searches too fast"