Dow Jones and New York Post sue AI startup Perplexity, alleging ‘massive’ copyright infringement

News Corp’s Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post have sued Perplexity, a startup that bills itself as an “AI-powered Swiss army knife for information discovery and curiosity,” alleging copyright infringement.

“Perplexity is a generative artificial intelligence company that claims to provide its users with accurate, up-to-date news and information on a platform that, in Perplexity’s own words, allows users to “skip the links” to “the original publishers’ websites,” the companies said in the federal lawsuit filed Monday. “Perplexity attempts to achieve this by engaging in massive amounts of illegal copying of publishers’ copyrighted works and siphoning critical customers and revenue away from copyright holders. This lawsuit is brought by news publishers seeking relief for Perplexity’s brazen scheme to compete for readers while simultaneously profiting from valuable content produced by publishers.

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The lawsuit alleges that in July 2024, Dow Jones and the Post sent a letter to Perplexity “informing it of the legal issues raised by Perplexity’s unauthorized use of plaintiffs’ copyrighted works and proposing to discuss a possible licensing agreement. Perplexity didn’t bother to respond.

Representatives for Perplexity did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, The New York Times last week sent Perplexity a cease and desist notice demanding that the company stop using its content, saying the Perplexity AI system violates its copyrights, Reuters reported. The Times also sued OpenAI and Microsoft, making similar allegations of copyright infringement.

Dow Jones and the New York Post filed the lawsuit Oct. 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. A copy of the lawsuit is available at this link.

The lawsuit seeks to enjoin Perplexity from “illegal copying of plaintiffs’ copyrighted material without plaintiffs’ authorization” and statutory damages for copyright infringement, “up to $150,000.” included for each violation, Perplexity’s actual damages and profits, for each violation, including each unauthorized violation.” digital copy or other content derived from the copyrighted works of Dow Jones and NYP Holdings,” according to the lawsuit.

News Corp CEO Robert Thomson, in a statement about the lawsuit, said: “Perplexity commits intellectual property abuse that harms journalists, writers, publishers and News Corp.” features repurposed material as a direct substitute for the original source. Perplexity proudly states that users can “skip links” – apparently Perplexity wants to skip verification.

Earlier this year, News Corp reached a deal with OpenAI under which the AI ​​company will pay News Corp a licensing fee potentially worth more than $250 million over five years.

“We applaud principled companies like OpenAI, who understand that integrity and creativity are essential if we are to realize the potential of artificial intelligence,” Thomson said. “Perplexity is not the only AI company to abuse intellectual property and it is not the only AI company that we will pursue vigorously and rigorously. We have made it clear that we prefer to court rather than sue, but, for the sake of our journalists, our writers and our business, we must challenge the kleptocracy of content.”

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