CNN sues Perplexity, alleging unlawful distribution of copyrighted content

CNN filed a lawsuit in New York federal court against Perplexity, alleging unlawful copying of thousands of CNN stories, videos, and images. The complaint claims Perplexity used the copied material to power its products and to distribute content that is identical or substantially similar to CNN’s reporting. CNN seeks monetary damages and a court order preventing further intellectual property violations. Perplexity responded that facts cannot be copyrighted. CNN argues that copying undermines copyright protections and reduces economic incentives for original newsgathering. The dispute fits into broader US legal actions by copyright owners against technology companies over alleged misuse of content for large language model training and outputs.

"United States news channel CNN has filed a lawsuit against Perplexity in New York federal court, alleging the AI search engine provider is unlawfully distributing its copyrighted content, marking the latest legal tussle between the AI firm and a news publisher. The complaint, filed on Thursday, said that Perplexity unlawfully copied thousands of CNN stories, videos and images to power its products and distribute identical or substantially similar competing content."

"CNN's lawsuit stands for the proposition that Perplexity, a company valued at tens of billions of dollars, should not be able to steal from entities that create the original content Perplexity exploits, the Warner Bros-owned news company said in a statement. By exploiting CNN's reporting in this manner, Perplexity violates the protections afforded by copyright law and undermines the economic incentives that make original newsgathering possible, CNN said in the complaint."

"CNN is asking for an unspecified amount of monetary damages and a court order blocking Perplexity from violating its intellectual property rights. Perplexity spokesperson Jesse Dwyer said in response to the lawsuit. "You can't copyright facts," Dwyer said."

"Since the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in 2022, news publishers and writers have worried about their content being repurposed to appear in the results of a chatbot query, triggering battles over copyright, compensation and ownership. CNN's lawsuit is one of dozens of high-stakes US cases brought by copyright owners, including news outlets, authors and publishers, against tech companies over alleged misuse of their work to train large language models."

Read at www.aljazeera.com