TechCrunch Industry News The New York Times is suing Perplexity for copyright infringement; while Meta signs commercial AI data agreements with publishers to offer real-time news on Meta AI
Dec 5, 2025
The New York Times has launched a copyright lawsuit against Perplexity, arguing that its content was used without permission. This marks a trend among publishers using legal action to negotiate licensing deals with AI companies. Meanwhile, Meta has formed partnerships with several major news outlets to deliver real-time news via its AI platform. This move signals Meta's shift back to compensating publishers after previous controversies over news content.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Publishers Use Lawsuits To Force AI Licensing
- The New York Times sued Perplexity for allegedly using its paywalled content in RAG outputs without permission or payment.
- Publishers use litigation as leverage to force licensing deals that compensate journalism.
Perplexity Tried Revenue Shares And Subscriptions
- Perplexity launched revenue-share programs and paid features to offer publishers compensation and licensing options.
- Those measures followed publisher complaints but didn't prevent new lawsuits from major outlets.
Legal Precedents On AI Training Are Emerging
- The Times also sued OpenAI and Microsoft over alleged use of its articles in model training without pay.
- Courts are beginning to split on fair use, as seen in suits involving Anthropic and pirated books.