{"version":1,"type":"story","url":"https://digestai.news/story/media-companies-seek-billions-from-openai-and-microsoft-over-copyright","json":"https://digestai.news/story/media-companies-seek-billions-from-openai-and-microsoft-over-copyright.json","markdown":"https://digestai.news/story/media-companies-seek-billions-from-openai-and-microsoft-over-copyright.md","slug":"media-companies-seek-billions-from-openai-and-microsoft-over-copyright","headline":"Media companies seek billions from OpenAI and Microsoft over copyright infringement","summary":"A coalition of U.S. media outlets—including The New York Times, the Daily News group, Ziff Davis, the Center for Investigative Reporting and The Intercept—has filed a joint summary‑judgment brief in New York federal court seeking billions of dollars in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft. The filing, cited by the Financial Times, alleges that the two AI firms copied copyrighted news content to train large language models without permission, violating license terms and bypassing paywalls.\n\nThe brief draws on internal Slack messages, emails and sworn testimony that show executives questioning the fairness of a fair‑use defense. Microsoft’s director of applied science Brent Hecht described the practice as “an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions,” while OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT Nick Turley warned that the products pose an “existential threat” to publishers. Internal documents also reveal that OpenAI ignored paywall restrictions, used a 1.8 million‑article New York Times Annotated Corpus whose license limited commercial use, and built a post‑lawsuit filter to suppress output from the plaintiffs’ sites. The plaintiffs argue that AI‑generated “pink‑slime” articles can be produced at a cost of about $6,800 per million, further eroding traffic to original journalism.","keyPoints":["Media outlets including NYT, Daily News group and Ziff Davis seek billions in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft.","Internal emails show executives calling the training practice “astonishing theft” and doubting a fair‑use defense.","OpenAI allegedly bypassed paywalls, used a restricted NYT corpus, and added a filter to hide evidence after lawsuits were filed."],"whyItMatters":"The case could force major AI labs to change how they collect and use copyrighted content, reshaping the economics of AI‑generated news.","category":{"slug":"policy","name":"Policy & Regulation","url":"https://digestai.news/category/policy"},"entities":{"companies":["OpenAI","Microsoft","The New York Times","Daily News group","Ziff Davis","Center for Investigative Reporting"],"models":[],"people":["Brent Hecht","Nick Turley","Greg Brockman","Satya Nadella"]},"firstPublishedAt":"2026-09-18T15:27:29Z","updatedAt":"2026-09-18T15:27:29Z","sourceCount":1,"hasPrimarySource":false,"sources":[{"outlet":"The Decoder","title":"AI training built on fair use looks shaky when the companies' own people call it \"astonishing theft\"","url":"https://the-decoder.com/ai-training-built-on-fair-use-looks-shaky-when-the-companies-own-people-call-it-astonishing-theft","publishedAt":"2026-09-18T15:27:29Z","type":"press","primary":false,"lead":true}],"sourceNotes":null,"discussions":[],"thread":{"title":"AI's Assault on Publishing and Creative Labor","url":"https://digestai.news/thread/microsoft-exec-called-ai-scraping-largest-theft-of-labor-in-human-history","storyCount":3},"cite":{"text":"Digest AI, \"Media companies seek billions from OpenAI and Microsoft over copyright infringement\", 18 September 2026, https://digestai.news/story/media-companies-seek-billions-from-openai-and-microsoft-over-copyright","publisher":"Digest AI","title":"Media companies seek billions from OpenAI and Microsoft over copyright infringement","datePublished":"2026-09-18T15:27:29Z","url":"https://digestai.news/story/media-companies-seek-billions-from-openai-and-microsoft-over-copyright"},"generatedBy":"Written by Digest AI's editorial model from the linked sources; the sources are the record.","license":"Headlines, digests and key points are written by Digest AI and may be quoted with a link to the story page. Linked articles belong to their publishers. Terms: https://digestai.news/terms#reuse"}