News Corp sues Perplexity AI for copyright infringement
News Corp filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI, accusing the search engine of copying content from Wall Street Journal and New York Post without authorization. Perplexity responded by arguing that news organizations cannot own facts, only the expression of them, and cited its revenue-sharing agreements with other publications.
What happened
News Corp filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI, alleging the company copied articles, analysis and opinion from Wall Street Journal and New York Post without authorization. News Corp stated Perplexity reproduces content word-for-word and misattributes facts and analysis to News Corp outlets, citing wrong sources or inventing news.
News Corp sent a letter to Perplexity in July regarding unauthorized use of its content and received no response. News Corp seeks an order to halt Perplexity's use of its content and destruction of databases containing News Corp works.
Reported impact
News Corp CEO Robert Thomson stated that Perplexity perpetuates an abuse of intellectual property harmful to journalists, writers, publishers and News Corp itself. News Corp contends the approach diverts customers and critical revenue from legitimate content owners.
Index analysis
Perplexity responded that news organizations cannot own facts, only the expression of them. Perplexity cited its revenue-sharing agreements with publications including Time, Der Spiegel and Fortune as examples of collaboration.
Forbes previously accused Perplexity of publishing formulations very similar to and entire fragments taken directly from its stories.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.