Perplexity AI Accuses News Corp of Copyright Entrapment

Perplexity AI has accused Dow Jones and NYP Holdings, subsidiaries of News Corp, of attempting to entrap its AI chatbot into producing verbatim copies of copyrighted articles to support their copyright infringement claims. This accusation arose in the context of a lawsuit filed by News Corp in October 2024, where they allege that Perplexity has engaged in "massive freeriding" on their protected content. Perplexity argues that the publishers' actions constitute a deceptive fishing exercise aimed at generating evidence for their lawsuit.

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The legal battle between Perplexity and various news organizations, including the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, centers on the use of AI to access and summarize content from paywalled articles. Perplexity has filed motions to dismiss claims from these publishers, asserting that its AI-powered search engine does not violate copyright laws. The company contends that it cannot be held liable for the content generated from user queries, which may include excerpts from the publishers' articles.

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• Perplexity AI: A San Francisco-based AI startup that provides an AI-powered search engine.

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• News Corp: Parent company of Dow Jones and NYP Holdings, which publishes the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

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• Judge Katherine Failla: The U.S. District Judge presiding over the case involving Perplexity and News Corp.

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Perplexity's chief communications officer, Jesse Dwyer, criticized the publishers' approach, stating, “When a publisher says ‘trust is a precious thing,’ and then recklessly loses it, it’s the writers and journalists who suffer.” In response to the lawsuit, Perplexity has requested that the court compel News Corp to disclose the extensive queries they made to its AI tool, arguing that these records would demonstrate the publishers' intent to induce copyright infringement.

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News Corp has defended its position, with CEO Robert Thomson claiming that Perplexity has "wilfully copied copious amounts of copyrighted material without compensation." The publishers argue that their content is being used unlawfully, depriving them of critical revenue sources. They have refused to share the majority of their queries with the court, citing the work product doctrine, which protects documents prepared in anticipation of litigation.

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There is a discrepancy regarding the number of queries made by News Corp to Perplexity. Perplexity claims that hundreds of attempts were made to elicit copyright-infringing responses, while News Corp has only submitted four exchanges as evidence in their lawsuit. This raises questions about the extent of the publishers' actions and the validity of their claims.

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• “This discovery would reveal an inconvenient truth: Plaintiffs repeatedly and deceptively crossed the line from investigation to entrapment.” — Perplexity AI

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• “Nothing in its partial motion to dismiss justifies this theft.” — Steve Lieberman, Lawyer for the Newspapers

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• “Yesterday the world learned it can’t trust publishers’ claims of copyright infringement.” — Perplexity AI

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The legal disputes involving Perplexity AI are ongoing, with multiple lawsuits filed by major publishers. The outcomes of these cases could have significant implications for the use of AI in accessing and summarizing copyrighted content, potentially shaping the future of intellectual property law in the digital age.

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