A coalition of nearly 400 newspaper publishers just filed a federal copyright infringement lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI, alleging the companies helped themselves to hundreds of thousands of copyrighted articles to train AI systems like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. The case landed in the Southern District of New York on June 24.
What the lawsuit actually claims
The case, formally titled Richner Communications, Inc. et al. v. Microsoft Corp. et al., is led by Long Island-based Richner Communications. The legal team is headed by Platkin LLP, a firm founded by former New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin.
The plaintiffs are asserting claims of both direct and vicarious copyright infringement under the US Copyright Act. They’re saying Microsoft and OpenAI didn’t just passively benefit from copyrighted content, they actively scraped it, stripped out copyright management information like author bylines, and used it commercially without ever reaching for the checkbook.
The publishers want statutory damages, actual damages, disgorgement of profits, attorneys’ fees, and injunctive relief that would block further unauthorized use of their work.
