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Highlights
- Dow Jones, parent company of Wall Street Journal and New York Post, sues Perplexity AI for unauthorized content use.
- Lawsuit accuses Perplexity of diverting traffic from news platforms through unlawful scraping.
- AI content usage without compensation remains a growing concern for publishers.
In a major legal move, Dow Jones, the parent company of Wall Street Journal and New York Post, has taken generative AI company Perplexity to court, accusing it of unlawfully using its human-created content. Dow Jones, part of the media empire owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp (ASX:NWS), claims that Perplexity's AI models scraped content from its publications without authorization to train machine-learning models.
The lawsuit, filed this week, underscores growing tensions between traditional publishers and AI companies, particularly concerning intellectual property rights. According to Dow Jones, this practice has harmed journalists, writers, and publishers by bypassing their platforms, depriving them of valuable traffic and ad revenue.
Thomson’s Strong Response
Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp, expressed his disapproval of Perplexity’s actions, labeling the company’s methods as an abuse of intellectual property. In a statement, he commented, “The perplexing Perplexity has willfully copied copious amounts of copyrighted material without compensation and shamelessly presents repurposed material as a direct substitute for the original source.” His remarks highlight the serious nature of the issue, as publishers rely heavily on the ad revenue generated from users visiting their websites.
The lawsuit argues that Perplexity has built its business model on accessing content from publishers like Dow Jones without permission. The claim suggests that by using this content to respond to user queries, Perplexity AI redirects potential readers away from original news sources. This impacts the traffic and revenue streams for the affected publishers, undermining the efforts of journalists and news platforms that invest heavily in content creation.
AI’s Role in Content Misuse
The core of the lawsuit revolves around Perplexity’s alleged "freeriding" on protected content from Dow Jones. The complaint points out that this strategy leads to direct competition for the same news-consuming audience, yet without compensating those who actually produce the content. This concern mirrors larger industry-wide issues, where AI firms have been criticized for using data without adequate licensing agreements.
This is not the first time publishers have raised alarms about AI's potential copyright violations. Other media companies, such as New York Times (NYT), have also taken legal action against AI firms. These lawsuits are seen as attempts to safeguard the integrity of journalistic work and prevent unauthorized use of copyrighted material.
Licensing: A Possible Solution?
In contrast to its legal action against Perplexity, News Corp has shown that AI companies can work with publishers through legal licensing deals. Earlier this year, the company signed a $250 million licensing agreement with OpenAI, describing its approach as “principled” in its use of intellectual property. The deal allows OpenAI to legally access News Corp content, setting an example for how AI firms can responsibly partner with publishers. However, Perplexity has yet to engage in any such agreements, leaving legal action as the primary path forward for Dow Jones.
As AI technology continues to evolve, the relationship between news publishers and tech companies will remain a focal point in the ongoing conversation about copyright, intellectual property, and fair compensation.
