Seattle Times and Newsday sue OpenAI and Microsoft over copyright infringement

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On September 4, The Seattle Times and Newsday filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against OpenAI and Microsoft for alleged copyright infringement. The plaintiffs claimed the tech companies scraped their websites, including content behind paywalls, to train AI products such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot without authorization or compensation. The newspapers seek a court order requiring the destruction of datasets and models that incorporate their work, arguing that these AI tools reduce the need for users to visit their sites or purchase subscriptions.

Consequences

This case joins a growing wave of litigation, including a 2023 suit by the New York Times, challenging the use of proprietary content in AI model training. The outcome could force a judicial determination on whether scraping copyrighted material for AI development falls under fair use or necessitates a new framework for licensing and compensation.

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