The Seattle Times and Newsday have filed a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that the technology companies used their journalism without permission or compensation to develop and operate artificial intelligence products.
The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that OpenAI and Microsoft scraped content from the newspapers' websites, including articles behind subscription paywalls. The publishers claim the material was incorporated into datasets associated with AI products including ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and AI features within Bing.
The newspapers also argue that the issue extends beyond the initial training of AI models. According to the complaint, generative AI services can produce responses derived from their reporting, potentially allowing users to access information without visiting the original publisher's website.
This has become a central point of contention between publishers and AI developers. News organisations invest in reporting, editing and distributing journalism, while developers of large language models rely on large volumes of text and other data to train and improve their systems. Publishers have increasingly questioned whether copyrighted journalism can be used for commercial AI development without licensing agreements.
Seattle Times Chief Executive Alan Fisco said in a message to employees that the publisher invests millions of dollars annually in producing original journalism and needs to protect that investment from uncompensated use.
OpenAI has disputed the broader legal argument behind similar copyright claims. The company maintains that its models are developed using publicly available information and that its practices are supported by fair-use principles. Microsoft said it was surprised by the latest lawsuit, while acknowledging the importance of local journalism and indicating that it was open to discussions over the dispute.
The publishers are seeking remedies that go beyond financial compensation. Their requested relief includes the destruction of allegedly unauthorised copies of copyrighted material as well as certain datasets or models containing their work.
The case joins a growing series of copyright disputes involving publishers and generative AI companies. Nearly 400 local and regional US newspapers, represented by a coalition of publishers, filed a separate lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft in June 2026 over similar allegations. The New York Times has also been pursuing copyright litigation against the two companies since 2023.
The latest lawsuit adds to an unresolved debate over how copyright law should apply to AI training and generated responses. Its outcome could carry implications for both AI developers seeking access to large datasets and publishers looking to protect and monetise their journalism.
Disclaimer: This article may include information derived from interviews, press releases, public statements, research, company communications and other publicly available or third-party sources. Such material may be summarised, paraphrased or contextualised for journalistic and editorial purposes. All rights in third-party content remain with their respective owners.