Can you run your own reCaptcha service, in your own web app?

Question

Is the backend used by reCaptcha open source? Is it a simple web app that can be deployed in a given container?

Thanks, LES

Answer 1

Running reCaptcha on your own server would be very cumbersome, as it requires a constant supply of image data (scanned books) to work. Also it would kind of beat a part of the purpose, that is digitizing books for the common good. Besides, I don't think it's even available.

Answer 2

It's a web service. It is supplied by a third party.

You can integrate it into your application, but as far as the source code goes, no. Its value is not in the source code but in the images that are supplied. They're not randomly generated but come from books from those parts an OCR system failed to process. So by solving reCaptcha people are actually helping scan books. Somebody takes care of the scanning process and supplied a constant flow of new challenges. Hard to beat.

Answer 3

This should be able to answer all of your questions for you: http://recaptcha.net/