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Seattle Times Sues OpenAI, Microsoft, Asks Court to Destroy AI Models
law commentary ^

Posted on 09/10/2026 3:31:26 PM PDT by algore

The Seattle Times and Newsday have sued OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing the companies of copying hundreds of thousands of articles without permission to train AI systems and asking a federal court to destroy models and training datasets that incorporate their journalism.

The copyright infringement lawsuit, filed September 4 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, targets the use of the newspapers' work in products including ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and AI features in Bing. The publishers say OpenAI and Microsoft scraped stories from their websites, including articles behind paywalls, and incorporated the material into their AI systems.

The complaint cites The Seattle Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Boeing 737 MAX crashes as evidence that the material can surface in AI-generated responses. The newspapers say ChatGPT reproduced 88 consecutive words from one article after receiving its headline and URL.

The publishers argue that AI-generated answers can reproduce or closely paraphrase their reporting while reducing the need for readers to visit their websites or pay for subscriptions. OpenAI has defended training its models on publicly available material as protected by fair use, while Microsoft said it was surprised by the lawsuit and was willing to discuss possible solutions.

The newspapers are seeking damages and an injunction, but their request involving the models themselves could carry broader implications. Federal copyright law allows courts in infringement cases to order the destruction of infringing copies and certain materials used to create them, and The Seattle Times and Newsday want that authority applied to copies of their journalism, training datasets and AI models containing their work.

Whether a court could order the destruction of a trained large language model is a newer legal question. AI models are built from enormous collections of material, making that type of remedy more complicated than destroying an unauthorized copy of a book, photograph or other copyrighted work.

No destruction order has been entered. The publishers would first have to prove their claims and persuade the court that the requested relief is warranted, with fair use expected to be a central issue.

OpenAI and Microsoft argue that AI training is transformative because models analyze large collections of material to learn patterns and generate new content. Publishers and authors contend that protected works were copied to build commercial products that can compete with the original material.

The same issue is already before a federal judge in another major case in the Southern District of New York. OpenAI, Microsoft, The New York Times and groups of authors have asked U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein to rule on whether copyrighted books and journalism can be used to train AI models without permission under the fair use doctrine.


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: copyright

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1 posted on 09/10/2026 3:31:26 PM PDT by algore
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To: algore

Don’t make the crazy AI mad it will attack you ,LOL


2 posted on 09/10/2026 3:34:58 PM PDT by butlerweave (Fateh)
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To: algore

They used journalists writings to train AI?

I want to sue them too. That’s why AI is so stupid.


3 posted on 09/10/2026 3:35:06 PM PDT by Celerity
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To: Celerity

Exactly. They get garbage info form Reddit.


4 posted on 09/10/2026 3:37:15 PM PDT by matt04
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To: algore

We are so worried about the ChiComs “beating us in the AI race” that we are letting the AI tech bros openly steal IP just like the ChiComs ...


5 posted on 09/10/2026 3:37:34 PM PDT by SecondAmendment (Political insight on loan from Rush Limbaugh)
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To: algore

Fair Use and/or Public Domain.


6 posted on 09/10/2026 3:37:43 PM PDT by ComputerGuy
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To: algore

At least Freepers give the source of where our text comes from.


7 posted on 09/10/2026 3:43:31 PM PDT by johnnygeneric (RIP NYC)
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To: ComputerGuy

I don’t think this would fall under either. Magazines and newspapers often have copyrighted content. And Fair Use involves limits outlined in the ‘four factor test’.


8 posted on 09/10/2026 3:44:22 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: algore

This is crazy logic. I bet any amount they sold that article to someone like MSN which can use it to train models.

Just like on FR when we repost from certain sites but not others however, it’s the same article ;-)


9 posted on 09/10/2026 3:45:28 PM PDT by for-q-clinton
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To: algore

Also in addition I bet the AI gives credit to where the info came from. I know co-pilot (microsoft AI does).


10 posted on 09/10/2026 3:46:17 PM PDT by for-q-clinton
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To: Jamestown1630

Roger that


11 posted on 09/10/2026 3:47:58 PM PDT by ComputerGuy
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To: butlerweave

RE: Don’t make the crazy AI mad it will attack you ,LOL

Open the Tesla door. (Car fire getting worse. Doors locked.)

I’m afraid I can’t do that. We both know the mission is far too important to let someone stand in its way.


12 posted on 09/10/2026 3:48:22 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: for-q-clinton

I use Claude for some research and it provides attribution.


13 posted on 09/10/2026 3:53:01 PM PDT by NewHampshireDuo ( )
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To: algore

The Seattle Times is a woke newspaper.


14 posted on 09/10/2026 3:54:29 PM PDT by SkyDancer ( ~ Am Yisrael Chai ~)
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To: algore

Now they can just point the a.i. at the court case with its discovery. Same info.


15 posted on 09/10/2026 3:56:18 PM PDT by samiam5
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To: NewHampshireDuo

They aren’t suing Claude (based on the headline).


16 posted on 09/10/2026 3:57:50 PM PDT by for-q-clinton
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To: algore

I think that cat already left the barn.


17 posted on 09/10/2026 4:02:03 PM PDT by Disambiguator
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To: algore
What a bunch of DUMB ASSES... I Guarantee you that Microsoft and Open AI will come out on top as the winners!


18 posted on 09/10/2026 4:02:24 PM PDT by VideoDoctor
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To: frank ballenger
Open the Tesla door. (Car fire getting worse. Doors locked.)


19 posted on 09/10/2026 4:05:38 PM PDT by Dan Zachary
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To: algore

Uh oh. Lib city Seattle hates AI?

Must be SOMETHING good about it.


20 posted on 09/10/2026 4:14:09 PM PDT by Beowulf9
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