GoKawiilSpeedrun.com revokes Creative Commons licence on user data in new terms
Speedrun.com replaced its terms of service on 1 October 2026, removing the Creative Commons licence that previously governed user-submitted data and content. The new terms state that parent company Elo now owns the site's data, databases and records, and ban activities including automated scraping, donation-based funding models, and building tools with 'substantially similar' features to the site. The API can now also be revised or shut off without notice.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The change directly threatens third-party speedrunning tools, bots, overlays and stats sites that rely on scraping or redistributing speedrun.com data, according to the author of therun.gg, who says the clauses appear targeted at donation-funded community projects like their own. A similar removal of the Creative Commons licence in 2021 triggered community backlash, suggesting this reversal could provoke a comparable reaction from runners and developers who built tools on the open data policy.
- Speedrun.com's new October 2026 terms remove the Creative Commons licence on user data, previously restored after 2021 backlash.
- Parent company Elo now claims ownership of the site's data, databases and records under the new terms.
- New clauses restrict scraping, donation-funded projects, and tools with features 'substantially similar' to speedrun.com's own.
Source: therun.gg, 2026-10-02
Published there as: “Leaderboards and speedrun.com's new terms of service”
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