"In the lawsuit, the companies allege that Perplexity's "answer engine" scrapes their websites, steals their internet traffic, and plagiarizes their copyrighted material. Britannica also alleges trademark infringement when Perplexity attaches the two companies' names to hallucinated or incomplete content. The word "plagiarize" illustrates the point of the lawsuit. The court document includes back-to-back screenshots that show Perplexity's result is identical to Merriam-Webster's definition."
"The AI company is also accused of " stealth crawling" websites with crawler blockers, a practice used by other AI companies. Perplexity, backed by investors like Jeff Bezos, has tussled with other media outlets like , The New York Times, and the BBC. News Corp, the parent company of outlets like The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, sued Perplexity in October 2024."
Encyclopaedia Britannica and Merriam‑Webster filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Perplexity's answer engine scrapes their websites, diverts internet traffic, and reproduces copyrighted material without proper attribution. The complaint contends that Perplexity misuses the companies' names alongside hallucinated or incomplete content, constituting trademark infringement. Court exhibits include screenshots showing near-identical output to Merriam‑Webster definitions. Perplexity faces broader criticism for alleged stealth crawling of sites using crawler blockers and for producing content accused of lacking citations. Perplexity has investor backing, prior legal disputes with major outlets, and a publisher program that some media and encyclopedias have joined.
Read at The Verge
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