Microsoft and OpenAI Are Sued by New York Times for Copyright Infringement

“Defendants’ generative artificial intelligence (“GenAI”) tools rely on large-language models (“LLMs”) that were built by copying and using millions of The Times’s copyrighted news articles, in-depth investigations, opinion pieces, reviews, how-to guides, and more,” the lawsuit said.

Neither Microsoft nor OpenAI immediately responded to a Barron’s request for comment.

The Times also said it has been trying to negotiate with Microsoft and OpenAI for months on the issue without a resolution.

The publication is seeking damages and the prevention of the continued alleged copyright of its content.

“Times journalism is the work of thousands of journalists, whose employment costs hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Each defendant has wrongfully benefited from nearly a century of that work—some performed in harm’s way—that remains protected by copyright law,” the Times said in the lawsuit. “Defendants have effectively avoided spending the billions of dollars that The Times invested in creating that work by taking it without permission or compensation.”

Shares of the New York Times were up 1.7% to $46.91 on Wednesday. Microsoft stock was down 0.2%.

Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com