The New York Times Files Copyright Infringement Suit Against Perplexity.
Image Credits:Artur Widak/NurPhoto / Getty Images
The New York Times Sues Perplexity for Copyright Infringement
In a significant legal move, The New York Times filed a lawsuit against AI search startup Perplexity on Friday, marking its second legal battle with an AI company. This lawsuit is part of a growing wave of legal actions by various media outlets, including the Chicago Tribune, which also initiated a lawsuit against Perplexity this week.
Legal Claims Against Perplexity
The New York Times argues that Perplexity provides its users with commercial products that effectively substitute the content of the outlet without the necessary permissions or financial compensation. The lawsuit highlights the serious implications of unauthorized use of protected material in the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Ongoing Negotiations and Strategies
Despite the burgeoning litigation, multiple publishers, including The Times itself, are engaged in discussions with AI firms to negotiate licensing agreements. Publishers recognize that the use of AI technologies is inevitable, and they are leveraging lawsuits to push for formal licensing that adequately compensates content creators. This dual strategy aims to maintain the economic viability of original journalism while ensuring that AI companies respect copyright laws.
Perplexity has attempted to address these compensation concerns by launching its own Publishers’ Program, which offers revenue-sharing opportunities to participating media outlets like Gannett, TIME, and the Los Angeles Times. In addition to this, the company introduced Comet Plus, which allocates 80% of its monthly fee to participating publishers and secured a multi-year licensing agreement with Getty Images.
The Ethical Use of AI
Graham James, a spokesperson for The Times, expressed the outlet’s commitment to the ethical development and use of AI but firmly criticized Perplexity for its alleged unauthorized utilization of their content. “We will continue to work to hold companies accountable that refuse to recognize the value of our work,” he stated.
The suit echoes concerns similar to those raised by the Tribune, focusing on Perplexity’s method of answering user queries. The company reportedly gathers information from various sources to generate responses using its retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) products, which include chatbots and an AI-assisted browser.
Copyright Violations
The lawsuit details that Perplexity repackages original content into written responses for users, with outputs that are often verbatim or near-verbatim reproductions of copyrighted works, including those of The New York Times. According to James, “RAG allows Perplexity to crawl the internet and steal content from behind our paywall and deliver it to its customers in real time.” This claim accentuates the broader implications of how AI technologies can undermine traditional publishing models.
Additionally, The Times alleges that Perplexity’s search engine has generated false information attributed to the outlet, potentially harming its reputation and brand integrity.
Responding to Legal Challenges
In reaction to The New York Times’ lawsuit, Jesse Dwyer, Perplexity’s head of communications, shared his perspective with TechCrunch, stating, “Publishers have been suing new tech companies for a hundred years, starting with radio, TV, the internet, social media, and now AI. Fortunately, it’s never worked, or we’d all be talking about this by telegraph.”
While there have been instances where publishers have succeeded in legal battles over emerging technologies, the outcome can be unpredictable. The Times’ lawsuit follows a cease and desist letter sent to Perplexity over a year ago, demanding the company cease its use of the outlet’s content.
The Broader Context of AI Litigation
This new legal challenge is not isolated, as The New York Times is also engaged in litigation against OpenAI and its partner Microsoft for allegedly training their AI models on the outlet’s articles without compensation. OpenAI has defended its actions by claiming its use of publicly available data constitutes “fair use.”
A parallel lawsuit against Anthropic, a competitor in the AI field, could set an important precedent in terms of fair use for AI training. In this case, authors and publishers took action against Anthropic for allegedly using pirated books, with the court ruling that while legally acquired materials may qualify for fair use, pirated content directly violates copyrights. Anthropic ultimately agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement.
Increased Legal Pressure on Perplexity
The mounting legal challenges facing Perplexity are indicative of an industry-wide concern regarding the ethical use of AI technologies. Just last year, News Corp, which owns outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, made similar accusations against Perplexity. As of 2025, the list of complainants has expanded to include notable names like Encyclopedia Britannica, Nikkei, Asahi Shimbun, and Reddit.
Moreover, other media organizations such as Wired and Forbes have called out Perplexity for alleged plagiarism and unethical scraping practices, asserting that the company has flouted website rules against unauthorized data collection. These claims have recently received validation from Cloudflare, an internet infrastructure provider.
Seeking Legal Redress
The New York Times is seeking judicial intervention to hold Perplexity accountable for the alleged harm caused and to prohibit the startup from utilizing its copyrighted material moving forward. However, it is essential to note that The Times is not entirely against collaboration with AI firms. Earlier this year, the outlet forged a multi-year licensing agreement with Amazon, permitting the tech giant to use its content for AI training.
Other media companies and publishers have similarly engaged in licensing arrangements with AI firms to ensure that their content is used responsibly and ethically. Among these are partnerships with notable organizations such as the Associated Press, Axel Springer, and Vox Media.
In summary, as the dialogue surrounding AI and copyright continues to evolve, The New York Times’ lawsuit against Perplexity underscores the urgent need for clear legal frameworks that prioritize both innovation and ethical content usage in the growing AI landscape.
Thanks for reading. Please let us know your thoughts and ideas in the comment section down below.
Source link
#York #Times #suing #Perplexity #copyright #infringement
About The Author
