The New York Times is not letting its AI copyright fight fade quietly. On June 25, 2026, the Times filed a motion to amend its copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, this time zeroing in on a specific and damning allegation: that Microsoft didn’t just passively benefit from OpenAI’s use of copyrighted content, but actively encouraged it by building a custom supercomputing system designed to make that training possible at scale.
The original complaint was filed on December 27, 2023, making this one of the longer-running and most closely watched AI copyright cases in US legal history. The amended filing, submitted to the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, arrives in heavily redacted form, but its intent is clear.
Why the Times is rewriting its complaint
The court recently sided with Cox Communications in a case where Sony attempted to hold Cox liable for music piracy occurring on its network. The court rejected that argument, establishing a tighter standard for contributory infringement. Under the new framework, plaintiffs can’t just show that a party knew infringement was happening. They have to prove that the party intentionally acted to induce the illegal conduct.
