Eight Major U.S. Newspapers Sue OpenAI and Microsoft for Copyright Infringement

Eight leading U.S. newspapers, owned by Alden Global Capital, have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement. This action, filed in the Southern District of New York, adds weight to publishers’ claims, following a similar case by the New York Times.

Until now, the Times was the only major newspaper to sue AI companies for copyright infringement. Other news publishers, such as the Financial Times, the Associated Press, and Axel Springer, have chosen to negotiate paid agreements with AI companies, undermining the Times’ claim for billions in damages.

The lawsuit represents prominent regional daily newspapers in Alden’s portfolio, including the New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida Sun Sentinel, San Jose Mercury News, Denver Post, Orange County Register, and St. Paul Pioneer Press. They are represented by Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck, one of the law firms supporting the New York Times in its complaint against OpenAI and Microsoft.

The crux of the new complaint, like the Times’ lawsuit, is copyright infringement claims related to the use of articles to train AI models. The newspapers accuse OpenAI and Microsoft of using millions of their copyrighted articles without permission or payment to commercialize their main generative AI products, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot.

The newspapers also allege that OpenAI and Microsoft removed copyright management information, such as journalists’ names and titles, from their work when the information they reported was cited in responses to queries. The lawsuit includes diluted trademark claims, alleging unauthorized use of the newspapers’ trademarks in branding the responses from ChatGPT and Copilot.

The newspapers further accuse the two AI giants of reputational damage related to generative AI’s “hallucinations,” or fabricated responses to users’ queries. They cite instances where ChatGPT falsely claimed that the Denver Post published research suggesting smoking could cure asthma, and that the Chicago Tribune recommended a recalled baby lounger linked to newborn deaths.

The outcome of these lawsuits could significantly change how news companies are compensated in the AI era. News publishers have relied on ad revenue from search results for two decades, but generative AI tools could eliminate much of that traffic. Text-based news companies are particularly vulnerable to AI firms scraping their content and using it for free to train their models, as most of their archives are available online and paywalls have proven ineffective in blocking data crawlers. Currently, many news companies are choosing to negotiate deals with AI firms.