OpenAI and Microsoft face fresh AI copyright suit from 400 newspapers

MUMBAI: The battle over AI has turned another page, and this time nearly 400 newspapers are writing the opening chapter. OpenAI and Microsoft are facing a fresh legal challenge after publishers representing nearly 400 newspapers filed a copyright lawsuit, alleging the companies unlawfully used their journalism to train generative AI models powering products such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot.

The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, claims the companies copied news articles and other original editorial content from publishers’ websites without permission or compensation, adding to the growing legal scrutiny surrounding AI training practices.

According to the complaint, OpenAI and Microsoft crawled publishers’ websites, copied copyrighted material onto their own systems, removed copyright management information and subsequently reproduced portions of that content in AI-generated responses.

The publishers argue that while they have invested billions of dollars in producing and protecting original journalism including placing content behind subscription paywalls, the AI companies have benefited commercially without sharing any of the value created by those news organisations.

The complaint also warns that unchecked use of publishers’ work could further weaken local journalism, which the plaintiffs describe as an essential public service for communities across the United States.

OpenAI rejected the allegations. Company spokesperson Drew Pusateri told Bloomberg that its models are trained on publicly available information, operate under the principle of fair use and are designed to support innovation.

The publishers are being represented by Platkin LLP. Matthew Platkin, the firm’s founder and former New Jersey Attorney General, described the case as the largest copyright action brought by local and regional newspaper publishers against AI developers. He argued that previous legal battles have largely centred on major national media organisations, leaving smaller publishers outside the broader conversation.

Platkin said local newspapers remain among the most trusted sources of information for Americans and maintained that any future legal resolution should protect regional publishers alongside larger media companies.

The plaintiffs are seeking statutory damages, as well as injunctive relief, alleging copyright infringement and violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The case is the latest in a widening series of legal disputes over how artificial intelligence companies acquire and use copyrighted material. According to the complaint, organisations including CNN, The New York Times, Reddit and Merriam-Webster have separately pursued legal action against Perplexity AI, underscoring the intensifying debate over the boundaries of AI training and intellectual property.

As AI adoption accelerates, the outcome of such cases could help determine how developers access copyrighted content and whether publishers receive compensation for the journalism that increasingly underpins modern AI systems.