{"id":14615,"date":"2025-08-27T00:40:32","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T00:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/27\/nikkei-asahi-shimbun-sue-perplexity-ai-for-copyright-infringement\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T00:40:32","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T00:40:32","slug":"nikkei-asahi-shimbun-sue-perplexity-ai-for-copyright-infringement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/27\/nikkei-asahi-shimbun-sue-perplexity-ai-for-copyright-infringement\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikkei, Asahi Shimbun Sue Perplexity AI for Copyright Infringement"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas previously worked at OpenAI. Saul Loeb\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perplexity AI<\/a>, a startup that has previously come under fire from online publishers, is attempting to rebuild trust with media players through revenue-sharing agreements. But that effort hasn\u2019t stopped complaints about how the company surfaces content. Its latest challenge comes from Japanese media groups Nikkei and Asahi Shumbun, which today (Aug. 26) filed a joint lawsuit accusing Perplexity of copyright infringement.<\/p>\n

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Co-founded in 2022 by CEO Aravind Srinivas<\/a>, Perplexity has quickly become a leader in A.I.-powered search and is currently valued at $18 billion. Unlike traditional search engines that return links, Perplexity responds to queries by summarizing information found online, accompanies by citations.<\/p>\n

Perplexity did not respond to Observer requests for comment on the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Nikkei, which owns the eponymous Japanese newspaper and the Financial Times<\/a>, and Asahi Shumbun claim that Perplexity has been storing and resurfacing their articles since at least June 2024, a practice the publishers describe as \u201cfree riding\u201d on journalists\u2019 work. The lawsuit, filed in a Tokyo District Court, demands that the A.I. company delete stored articles, stop reproducing publisher content, and pay each media company 2.2 billion Japanese yen ($15 million) in damages.<\/p>\n

The suit also alleges that Perplexity ignored robot.txt safeguards implemented by the news publishers to block unauthorized crawling and sometimes presented articles alongside incorrect information, a move the publishers argue \u201cseverely damages the credibility\u201d of their newspapers.<\/p>\n

This is not Perplexity\u2019s first clash with news publishers<\/a>. Earlier this month, Yomiuri Shimbun, another major Japanese newspaper, filed its own lawsuit against the company. U.S. outlets have also raised challenges.<\/p>\n

Last year, Cond\u00e9 Nast, Forbes<\/a> and The New York Times all threatened legal action over alleged copyright infringement. Perplexity is currently battling a 2024 lawsuit from Dow Jones<\/a> and The New York Post<\/a>\u2014both owned by Rupert Murdoch<\/a>\u2019s News Corp<\/a>\u2014claiming that the startup misused content to train A.I. models. A court recently rejected Perplexity\u2019s bid to dismiss that case.<\/p>\n

Perplexity has since tried to ease tensions by launching revenue-sharing programs that give outlets a portion of the ad revenue generated from their material<\/a>. The program has attracted partners such as Time Magazine<\/a>, Fortune<\/a> and the German news site Der Spiegel. Perplexity also recently unveiled plans to give publishers around 80 percent of the sales from Comet Plus<\/a>, a news service expected to launch later this year.<\/p>\n

For now, the media industry remains divided on how to handle the rise of A.I. Some, like the Associated Press<\/a>, Vox Media<\/a> and The Atlantic, have signed licensing deals with OpenAI<\/a>. Others remain wary. The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft over unauthorized use of its content, while Canadian startup Cohere<\/a> was hit with a similar lawsuit this year from more than a dozen news publishers. Thompson Reuters has also accused A.I. platform Ross Intelligence of copyright infringement in a case that dates back to 2020.<\/p>\n

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