400 Local Newspapers Sue OpenAI, Microsoft

David Wildstein of the New Jersey Globe reported that a substantial coalition of local newspaper publishers June 24 filed a federal lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft. The lawsuit alleges the technology companies systematically duplicated copyrighted reporting from nearly 400 local newspapers to train and develop commercial artificial intelligence products, including ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, without permission or compensation. The publishers contend that OpenAI and Microsoft unlawfully appropriated original news content to build their AI systems, violating the Copyright Act and threatening the future of local journalism. The lawsuit also alleges that OpenAI knowingly stripped copyright management information from publishers’ work — including author bylines, copyright notices and terms of use information — in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.