Another AI infringement lawsuit- WSJ parent company and New York Post sue Perplexity
On October 21, Dow Jones, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Post filed a lawsuit against the generative AI search engine Perplexity, marking the latest legal showdown between the news publishing industry and AI companies.
Both Dow Jones and The New York Post, which fall under the ownership of billionaire Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, lodged their complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. They allege that Perplexity has engaged in widespread “illegal copying” of copyrighted news content, which is then used to generate responses for users, effectively siphoning off customers and critical revenue.
Utilizing large language models (LLMs) from platforms like OpenAI and Anthropic, Perplexity provides real-time answers to user inquiries while citing sources. However, the lawsuit contends that Perplexity’s “answer engine” has “massively” copied “copyrighted news content, analysis, and opinions,” incorporating such materials into its internal database and generating responses that aim to substitute traditional news and information websites.
Additionally, Dow Jones and The New York Post accuse Perplexity of misattributing sources, which they claim harms their brand reputation. The search engine has reportedly generated answers containing erroneous information. The plaintiffs are seeking a court order to stop Perplexity from using and redistributing their copyrighted content without permission, as well as the destruction of all materials belonging to both companies in Perplexity’s database. They also request damages of up to $150,000 for each infringement.
Several other news organizations have previously sent legal notices to Perplexity, urging it to cease using their content. For instance, The New York Times, which has sued OpenAI for copyright infringement, recently issued a warning to Perplexity. Similarly, Forbes and Wired magazine have accused Perplexity of plagiarism.
According to the lawsuit, Dow Jones and The New York Post reached out to Perplexity in July to address the “unauthorized use” of copyrighted works and proposed discussions for a potential licensing agreement. However, Perplexity reportedly ignored the communication.
Perplexity had earlier indicated to publishing groups that it would cease using crawling techniques to gather content and later introduced a revenue-sharing plan. It is now preparing to launch advertising on its platform, potentially competing with news organizations for advertising clients.
As the AI conversation continues to heat up, Perplexity is in discussions for its fourth round of fundraising, aiming to secure between $500 million and $1 billion to boost its valuation to $8 billion, more than doubling its $3 billion valuation from this past summer.
Sources indicate that Perplexity has not yet selected lead investors for this round or signed any agreements, but it’s expected that existing investors will participate. Current backers include Nvidia, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Andrej Karpathy, co-founder of OpenAI.
