Perplexity AI Faces ’Large-Scale’ Content Theft Lawsuit from NYT and Tribune

Another AI giant gets slapped with a lawsuit—this time for allegedly treating the news industry like its personal, unpaid content farm.

The Core of the Case

The New York Times and Tribune Publishing aren't asking for change. They're suing Perplexity AI, accusing the company of systematically scraping and reproducing their copyrighted journalism without permission or payment. The publishers claim this 'large-scale' infringement cuts directly into their revenue and undermines the entire ecosystem that funds original reporting.

Why This One Stings

It's not just about copying text. The suit alleges Perplexity's AI models bypass paywalls and subscription gates, effectively repackaging premium content as its own answers. For an industry already on the ropes, it's a direct hit to the subscription and licensing model many outlets are betting their future on. It's the digital equivalent of a shoplifter setting up a stall right outside the store.

The Bigger Battle

This lawsuit is the latest—and one of the most significant—salvo in the escalating war between content creators and AI developers. The core question remains unanswered: who owns the information that trains and fuels these multi-billion dollar models? Publishers argue it's theirs. AI companies often act like it's a free resource, a necessary input for 'innovation.' Someone's going to have to pay up, and it's starting to look less like a licensing fee and more like a legal settlement. After all, in tech, it's often cheaper to ask for forgiveness than permission—until the lawyers get involved.

So, while VCs pour billions into AI for its world-changing potential, the old-fashioned news business is left holding the bill. Some 'disruption' just looks an awful lot like theft with a better PR team.

News sites challenge Perplexity’s AI technology

The Tribune’s lawsuit claims that Perplexity is utilizing Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) technology, which allows the system to gather information from websites and databases in real-time to formulate responses to bypass paywalls and provide detailed summaries of protected content and deliver the news platform’s content verbatim.

Perplexity’s head of communication, Jesse Dwyer, defended the company’s practices in a statement to The New York Times, stating that publishers have been suing new technology companies for a century, from radio and television to the internet and social media.

“Fortunately, it’s never worked, or we’d all be talking about this by telegraph,” he added. The company maintains that it operates within established legal frameworks governing how information is organized and accessed online.

The AI copyrights frontier is expanding

More than 40 current court cases exist between AI companies and copyright holders in the United States. In October, Dow Jones and the New York Post sued Perplexity for similar violations, while Reddit filed a suit accusing the startup of unlawfully scraping user data.

Japanese publishers Nikkei and Asahi Shimbun, along with Encyclopedia Britannica, have also taken legal action against the same AI startup.

In Italy, two media firms, RTI and Medusa Film, owned by the Berlusconi family, sued Perplexity in Rome, accusing the company of using their copyrighted films and TV programs to train AI models without receiving permission to do so.

Publishers say that AI-generated summaries threaten their business models by diverting traffic from their websites, reducing advertising opportunities, and undermining paid subscription services.

Meta sidesteps litigation

Perplexity faces increasing litigation; however, it is not the only one in the AI space that has been hit with lawsuits. OpenAI, Claude’s Anthropic, and others also have cases with publishers.

However, Meta has demonstrated an alternative path forward with its most recent move.

The Facebook parent company announced multiple commercial AI data agreements with news publishers, including USA Today, CNN, Fox News, The Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, and Le Monde.

These arrangements allow Meta to provide real-time news through its AI chatbot while properly attributing content and linking to original articles, though financial terms remain undisclosed.

The publishers are seeking court orders to stop Perplexity from using their content, destruction of databases containing copyrighted work, and monetary damages for alleged harm.

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