Seattle Times and Newsday Sue OpenAI and Microsoft in Escalating Copyright Battle Over AI Training
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Seattle Times and Newsday are the latest publications to sue OpenAI and Microsoft
Two more news organizations are suing OpenAI and Microsoft over the supposed use of their journalism to train AI. A lawsuit filed by The Seattle Times and Newsday argued that with the advent of AI, the journalism industry could become "broken beyond repair." The lawsuit described generative AI as
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Seattle Times and Newsday sue OpenAI and Microsoft for infringement
The Seattle Times and Newsday are just the latest plaintiffs to take OpenAI to court, alleging copyright infringement. The two outlets say the company used their journalism as training data for its AI models without permission and often reproduces passages from their reporting in response to user
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OpenAI, New York Times case tees up key test of AI training under copyright law
Sept 8 (Reuters) - OpenAI, Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab, the New York Times (NYT.N), opens new tab and a group of prominent authors have laid out sharply differing views on one of the highest-stakes questions in copyright law in their dispute over AI training. The tech companies and copyright
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Two more news organizations sue OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement - Engadget
The Seattle Times and Newsday have jointly filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing the companies of training their AI models using copyrighted works. The two news organizations who filed the legal action on Friday called generative AI "a snake eating its own tail" that would destroy
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Court Filings In A.I. Suit Invoke Copyright Law, Culture and Sports
Mike Isaac reported from San Francisco, and Karen Weise from Seattle. Court filings made Friday in a closely watched copyright trial pitting The New York Times against OpenAI and Microsoft invoked a wide range of material, including relevant copyright law, arts and sports. The suit, filed in 2023
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Seattle Times sues Microsoft and OpenAI, alleging they trained their AI on its journalism
Microsoft was sued Friday by the parent company of its hometown daily newspaper, The Seattle Times Co., which joined with Newsday to accuse the Redmond tech giant and OpenAI of using their journalism to train their artificial intelligence models. The lawsuit alleges that the companies scraped
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Historic NYT v. OpenAI copyright battle heats up
Why it matters: A ruling in favor of the Times could wreak havoc on the lucrative business models underpinning the AI industry. * A ruling in favor of OpenAI and Microsoft would serve as a massive blow to the publishing industry, potentially undermining its ability to control and monetize how
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Local newspapers sue OpenAI and Microsoft over use of paywalled articles
OpenAI and Microsoft face another lawsuit from news organizations the Seattle Times and Newsday, which accuse the tech giants of using their sites to train AI without permission. The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, alleges that the companies scraped paywalled content and added
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The Seattle Times sues OpenAI, Microsoft over copyright infringement
The Seattle Times Co. is suing OpenAI and Microsoft, in the latest move by media companies crying foul over artificial intelligence players' alleged copyright violations. In a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court, The Seattle Times, joined by Newsday, accused OpenAI of using the outlets'
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Seattle Times, Newsday sue OpenAI, Microsoft, alleging copyright infringement
The suit in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York alleges that OpenAI and Microsoft scraped the newspapers' websites, including content behind paywalls, and incorporated articles into datasets used to train and operate products including ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Bing's
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Seattle Times, Newsday sue OpenAI and Microsoft over alleged use of copyrighted journalism - MEDIANAMA
You can access the lawsuit here. The Seattle Times and Newsday have sued OpenAI and Microsoft in a US federal court. They allege that the companies copied their copyrighted journalism without permission or payment. They also allege that the companies used the material to train and operate
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OpenAI, Microsoft Face Copyright Lawsuit from US Publishers
OpenAI and Microsoft are facing a new legal challenge from two major US news organizations over the alleged use of their journalism to train artificial intelligence systems. The Seattle Times and Newsday accused the companies of copying their articles without permission and using them to train and
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Seattle Times, Newsday sue OpenAI and Microsoft over AI training By Investing.com
Investing.com -- The Seattle Times and Newsday sued OpenAI and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) on Friday, accusing the technology companies of using their journalism without permission to train artificial intelligence systems, Reuters reported. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the
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OpenAI and Microsoft face legal heat from news publishers over copyright infringement claims
The newspapers claimed their websites were scrapped, including content available only to paying subscribers OpenAI and Microsoft are facing a new legal challenge from two major US news organisations over alleged use of their journalism to train AI systems. The Seattle Times and Newsday accused the
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The Seattle Times and Newsday filed a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging unauthorized use of journalism to train AI models. The case joins nearly 400 news outlets in legal action against the tech giants, with court filings revealing sharp divisions over fair use and the future of the journalism industry.
Seattle Times and Newsday Join Growing Legal Battle Against AI Giants
The Seattle Times and Newsday have filed a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, marking another significant escalation in the ongoing legal dispute over AI training practices
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. The two news organizations sue AI companies for allegedly using their journalism without permission to train AI models like ChatGPT and Copilot. Filed on Friday, the lawsuit describes generative AI as "a snake eating its own tail" that could "destroy the very organizations" producing the content it consumes1
. This legal action against OpenAI adds to nearly 400 local newspapers that recently sued the two companies, claiming chatbots reduce traffic to their sites and cost them valuable subscription revenue2
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Source: GeekWire
Copyright Infringement Claims Target Core Business Models
The copyright lawsuit alleges that OpenAI and Microsoft were "methodically scraping" news articles in ways that bypass paywalls, fundamentally harming business models for news organizations
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. The Seattle Times and Newsday claim these practices give users AI-generated alternatives to news articles, reducing digital advertising revenue and website traffic4
. The lawsuit further alleges that AI models create hallucinations attributing false information to the outlets and remove copyright management information from articles4
. As part of their legal action, the publishers seek destruction of any copies of their works the companies hold, along with training data and AI models incorporating them2
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Source: MediaNama
Microsoft Funding Creates Uncomfortable Irony in Legal Battle
The Seattle Times lawsuit carries particular significance because OpenAI and Microsoft have previously funded some of the organization's journalism projects and fellowships
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. A Microsoft spokesperson told GeekWire the company is "surprised by the lawsuit" but remains "always happy to sit down and explore solutions to this type of dispute"1
. This creates an uncomfortable dynamic where a company that has supported journalism now faces accusations of undermining the journalism industry through its use of copyrighted material to train AI models.Fair Use Defense Sets Stage for Landmark Legal Test
OpenAI, Microsoft, The New York Times, and a group of prominent authors laid out sharply differing views on AI training under copyright law in court filings submitted to U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan
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. Both sides requested rulings on the companies' "fair use" defense, which will likely determine the outcome3
. The New York Times, whose lawsuit was first filed in 2023, accuses OpenAI and Microsoft of using millions of newspaper articles without permission to train ChatGPT3
. Authors including John Grisham, Jonathan Franzen, and George R.R. Martin separately sued the companies the same year for using their books to train AI models3
.Diverging Judicial Opinions Create Legal Uncertainty
The pending cases will likely turn on whether AI systems make fair use of copyrighted material by creating transformative use of content
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. Two judges who considered the issue issued diverging rulings last year. U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco called Anthropic's use of books for AI training "quintessentially transformative"3
. Judge Vince Chhabria, also in San Francisco, ruled for Meta two days later, calling its use of copyrighted books transformative but warning that AI training would not be fair use "in many circumstances" and raising concerns that generative AI could "flood the market" with content competing with human creators3
.Related Stories
Tech Companies Defend Transformative Nature of AI Training
Citing Alsup's ruling, OpenAI told the Manhattan court that using copyrighted material for AI training is "among the most transformative many of us will see in our lifetimes" and claimed its technology has not harmed writers
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. "The purpose of OpenAI's pretraining process was to derive broad, unprotectable statistical patterns related to language that can be used to create new text, not reproduce protected expression," OpenAI stated in its brief3
. Microsoft argued that existing copyright law "does not permit rights holders to block transformative technologies" like Copilot5
. The company further stated that "neither LLM training nor the use of LLMs in products substitutes for copyrighted books"3
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Source: Engadget
News Organizations Argue AI Threatens Creative Incentives
The Times claimed in court filings that its articles were not transformed by the tech companies and not subject to fair use protections under copyright law
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. "The future not just of journalism but of responsible A.I., too, depends on preserving incentives for humans to produce the creative works on which a healthy society depends," The Times wrote5
. Authors echoed concerns that AI is "diluting the market for books across the board," arguing that fair use "does not countenance such catastrophic threats to the incentive to create"3
. News outlets said ChatGPT diverts users from their websites and displaces the market for their work, with The Times arguing its business was harmed through substantially lower click-through rates when traditional search links were replaced with AI-generated summaries5
.Industry Split Emerges as Some Publishers Partner with AI Companies
While news organizations sue OpenAI and Microsoft in growing numbers, other outlets have taken a different approach. AP and Vox Media have partnered with OpenAI, allowing the AI giant to train models on their material
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. This split strategy reveals deep divisions within the journalism industry about how to respond to AI's disruption. Judge Stein is expected to rule on summary judgment motions in the coming weeks, with the decision likely to have far-reaching implications for how copyright law applies to AI training practices5
. The outcome will shape whether AI companies must negotiate licenses for training data or can continue current practices under fair use protections, fundamentally affecting both the economics of journalism and the development trajectory of AI systems.References
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