Seattle Times and Newsday sue OpenAI and Microsoft over use of journalism
The publishers filed a federal lawsuit on September 4, 2026, alleging unauthorized use of their reporting in AI systems. OpenAI defended its training practices, while Microsoft said it was open to discussing the dispute.
In short
- The publishers filed a federal lawsuit on September 4, 2026, alleging unauthorized use of their reporting in AI systems.
- OpenAI defended its training practices, while Microsoft said it was open to discussing the dispute.
The Seattle Times and Newsday filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft in New York on September 4, 2026, alleging that the companies used their journalism without permission to build artificial intelligence products.
The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. According to [Reuters](https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/seattle-times-newsday-sue-openai-microsoft-alleging-copyright-infringement-4890157), the publishers allege that material from their websites, including paywalled articles, was collected for systems used in ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Bing’s AI features.
The newspapers say those products can reproduce or closely paraphrase their reporting, potentially reducing readers’ need to visit their websites or subscribe. Those are allegations in the lawsuit, rather than findings by a court.
OpenAI said its models use publicly available data and defended its practices on fair-use grounds. Microsoft expressed surprise at the lawsuit and said it was willing to explore a resolution, according to [the Seattle Times’ report republished by The Spokesman-Review](https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/sep/04/the-seattle-times-sues-openai-microsoft-over-copyr/).
The publishers are seeking damages and destruction of training datasets containing their work. Their case adds to the dispute between news organizations and AI developers over permission, payment and the treatment of copyrighted reporting. The New York Times brought a similar lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft in 2023.
The development entered AddisMizan’s source queue through [TechCrunch’s September 5 report](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/05/seattle-times-and-newsday-are-the-latest-publications-to-sue-openai-and-microsoft/).
