“By copying The Times’ copyrighted content and creating substantive output derived from its works, obviating the need for users to visit The Times’s website or purchase its newspaper,” the lawsuit alleges. “Perplexity is misappropriating substantial subscription, advertising, licensing, and affiliate revenue opportunities that belong rightfully and exclusively to The Times.”
The New York Times has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Perplexity, an artificial intelligence start-up known for its work on search engines.
According to a New York Times article detailing the lawsuit, attorneys for the paper said they had contacted Perplexity several times over the course of the past 18 months. Each time, the Times asked that Perplexity immediately cease using its published content for training purposes until both companies negotiated an agreement.
However, the lawsuit alleges, Perplexity never provided a definitive response—but continued to use the Times’ material.
“While we believe in the ethical and responsible use and development of AI, we firmly object to Perplexity’s unlicensed use of our content to develop and promote their products,” New York Times spokesman Graham James said. “We will continue to work to hold companies accountable that refuse to recognize the value of our work.”
The lawsuit accuses Perplexity of violating the Times’ copyright in several ways. Perplexity’s trademark search engine, for instance, retrieves information from the internet and uses it to generate a piece of text in response to user queries. The Times claims that this type of use does not constitute fair use, an exception to copyright protections, because Perplexity obtained and analyzed large amounts of content, which was then provided to users of a potential rival platform.
“Perplexity provides commercial products to its own users that substitute for The Times, without permission or remuneration,” the lawsuit alleges.
The New York Times says that, in some cases, Perplexity’s search engine will even provide copies of articles that are “verbatim” or otherwise “substantially similar.”
“By copying The Times’ copyrighted content and creating substantive output derived from its works, obviating the need for users to visit The Times’s website or purchase its newspaper,” the lawsuit alleges. “Perplexity is misappropriating substantial subscription, advertising, licensing, and affiliate revenue opportunities that belong rightfully and exclusively to The Times.”
The Times also claims that Perplexity’s use of copyright-protected material damaged its brand.
In some cases, attorneys say, Perplexity’s search engine essentially “made up” information, then provided the New York Times as a false source.
Perplexity told the New York Times in a statement that these kinds of lawsuits are a commonplace hindrance and waste of resources.
“Publishers have been suing tech companies for a hundred years, starting with radio, TV, the internet, social media, and now AI,” said Jesse Dwyer, Perplexity’s head of communications. “Fortunately, it’s never worked, or we’d all be talking about this by telegraph.”
Sources
New York Times sues AI startup for ‘illegal’ copying of millions of articles
New York Times Sues A.I. Start-Up Perplexity Over Use of Copyrighted Work
The New York Times sues Perplexity, alleging copyright infringement
The New York Times sues Perplexity for producing ‘verbatim’ copies of its work
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