400 newspapers are suing OpenAI and Microsoft regarding AI issues.

      A coalition that operates almost 400 local U.S. newspapers has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft. The publishers argue that AI training on their journalism poses a significant threat to local news. This marks the largest copyright lawsuit initiated by the local press to date. Local newspapers cover events that algorithms do not attend, such as council votes, school board discussions, obituaries, and new restaurant openings. Now, the owners of nearly 400 of these newspapers are asking a court to determine the value of such reporting for an AI company.

      On June 24, a nationwide coalition of publishers took legal action against OpenAI and Microsoft, bringing the case to a federal court in Manhattan. The complaint, spanning 55 pages, is candid, alleging that the two companies unlawfully copied hundreds of thousands of articles to develop ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, without seeking permission or providing compensation.

      Courthouse News was the first to report on the case, which is led by Richner Communications, a publisher from Long Island. The publishers are represented by Matthew Platkin, who was New Jersey’s attorney general from 2022 to 2026 and now operates his own law firm. The lawsuit comprises three counts of copyright infringement, with the publishers seeking statutory damages, actual damages, profit returns, and legal fees.

      This case represents the largest action yet by local press entities. The significant aspect is the unprecedented unity displayed by local and regional papers in this legal pursuit, as previous lawsuits involving OpenAI were filed predominantly by national outlets and bestselling authors. This instance showcases the underfunded newspapers that provide coverage of local courts and councils.

      The plaintiffs reflect a diverse cross-section of regional America, including the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the New York Amsterdam News, Newspapers of New England, the Ogden Newspapers chain, and Straus Newspapers, collectively comprising hundreds of titles.

      The details of the complaint illustrate serious allegations. It claims that OpenAI and Microsoft “systematically and secretly crawled” numerous news sites, including content behind paywalls. They reportedly copied articles to their servers and removed copyright management information such as author names, publication titles, terms of use, and copyright notices.

      The removal of this ownership information lies at the core of a second claim made by the publishers. They contend that this action was integral to the defendants' content acquisition process and severed the connection between the articles and their rightful owners. The complaint asserts that the modified text was then utilized to train large language models, which allegedly “memorized” and reproduced the content verbatim in responses.

      The publishers further argue that deleting this ownership data violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. According to the New Jersey Globe, the complaint also references Sam Altman’s testimony before the British House of Lords, where the OpenAI CEO stated it would be “impossible” to train leading models without copyrighted material.

      Local journalism presents a particularly challenging test case, as highlighted by Platkin. He emphasized that AI systems do not critically engage with local council and community meetings, nor do they investigate local crimes and corruption, publish obituaries, or report on new restaurants. Those responsibilities fall to local journalists.

      The financial implications strengthen the publishers' argument. With local newspapers facing tight budgets and diminishing staff, the complaint describes the unauthorized use as a “death knell” for an industry known for its trustworthiness in America. The assertion goes beyond mere copying; it emphasizes that the impact is felt most severely by the outlets least equipped to manage it.

      OpenAI has encountered similar challenges in court before. Earlier this year, Encyclopaedia Britannica and its Merriam-Webster division sued the company for extensive copying of their content, and the New York Times lawsuit continues to progress. The publishers join a growing coalition of rights holders, including authors and actors, who are working to protect their work from AI exploitation. Some, like Getty Images, have opted to settle rather than pursue litigation.

      Microsoft is named alongside OpenAI for a significant reason, as the complaint describes it as “an indispensable partner in virtually every aspect of OpenAI’s commercial operations.” This partnership began with a $1 billion investment in 2019, transforming both companies. Neither party responded to requests for comments upon the lawsuit's filing.

      OpenAI has consistently claimed that utilizing public text for training purposes constitutes fair use, a defense it is employing in all related cases. The publishers are banking on the argument that the secrecy surrounding the content gathering and the removal of bylines undercut the fair use claim. They hope a jury will interpret crawling behind paywalls as theft rather than research.

      As OpenAI approaches an $852 billion valuation, funded by the belief that its models can generate answers to nearly any query, this case raises a more focused question. If those answers are constructed on reporting for which no compensation was made, who should bear the cost? It will be up to a judge in Manhattan to make that determination, not the trajectory of a product roadmap.