LWN, the respected Linux Weekly News site, is enduring its heaviest scraper attack yet. Editor Jonathan Corbet confirmed the DDOS attack involves tens of thousands of addresses, degrading site performance. He expressed frustration at having to defend against what he called "AI shitheads" instead of focusing on journalism.

The assault highlights a growing crisis for independent publishers. Scrapers, often tied to data brokers like Bright Data, steal content for AI training while overwhelming servers. This drains resources and ad revenue, making it harder for small sites to serve their human readers. It's a direct threat to the open web's sustainability.

Community suggestions range technical fixes to more aggressive measures. Some propose subscriber-only access, though Corbet worries that could hinder new sign-ups. Others suggest bot traps or gibberish responses to poison AI models. The core dilemma remains: balancing site accessibility with the need to block relentless, automated traffic.