Seattle Times and Newsday sue OpenAI and Microsoft over copyright

September 5, 2026 at 10:46 PM2 min

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The Seattle Times and Newsday filed a joint lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft on Friday, accusing the companies of training AI models on copyrighted articles. The news organizations claim the AI firms scraped paywalled content, harming their business models and reducing traffic and ad revenue. The lawsuit adds to a growing wave of legal actions by publishers against AI companies.

Key Facts

The Seattle Times and Newsday filed the lawsuit on Friday against OpenAI and Microsoft.
The lawsuit alleges the companies bypassed paywalls and scraped news articles to train AI models.
The New York Times set a precedent by suing OpenAI and Microsoft in 2023.
Microsoft and OpenAI have funded some of The Seattle Times' journalism projects and fellowships.
A Microsoft spokesperson told GeekWire the company is "surprised by the lawsuit" but open to exploring solutions.

The Lawsuit

The Seattle Times and Newsday jointly filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft on Friday, accusing the companies of training AI models using copyrighted works. The news organizations alleged that OpenAI and Microsoft were "methodically scraping" news articles in a way that bypasses paywalls. The lawsuit claimed this method of training AI models has harmed their business models by giving users an AI-generated alternative to news articles and reducing traffic and digital advertising revenue. The lawsuit also alleged that the AI models create hallucinations attributing false information to the news outlets and remove copyright management information on articles.

Industry Context

The Seattle Times and Newsday join a growing list of news organizations that have started legal battles against AI companies. In 2023, The New York Times set a precedent by filing a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft for similar reasons. CNN sued Perplexity for copyright infringement earlier this year. Other news organizations like AP and Vox Media have partnered with OpenAI, allowing the AI giant to train models on their material.

Microsoft Response

A Microsoft spokesperson told GeekWire that the company is "surprised by the lawsuit" but is "always happy to sit down and explore solutions to this type of dispute." The Seattle Times' lawsuit is particularly notable because Microsoft and OpenAI have funded some of the organization's journalism projects and fellowships.