Yomiuri Shimbun pursues legal action against Perplexity AI Inc.'S Generated Artificial Intelligence Search Service cites copyright infringement against US startups'sImproper use of that article.
The lawsuit filed in Tokyo District Court on August 7 requires the company to stop replicating the article, remove existing articles, and pay approximately 2.17 billion yen ($14.78 million) of damages.
This is the first legal action taken by a major domestic media outlet against AI companies regarding the misuse of copyrighted material, including newspaper articles and images.
Specifically, the lawsuit was filed by the newspaper.'The three headquarters are operated as separate companies under Yomiuri Shinbun Holdings: Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuda.
According to the complaint, Perplexity's services combine traditional search engines with generation AI. When users enter a question, the service searches relevant information online and provides AI-based answers based on what they find.
Three plaintiffs allege that by reproducing newspaper articles and images, they are confused by the “right to copy” under copyright law.'Generate these answers online for S Digital Edition Yomiuri Shimbun.
The plaintiff also claims to spawn text and images similar to the content of the original article of an unspecified user that does not infringe on the “right to send to the public” as stipulated by copyright law.
An analysis of Yomiuri Shimbun's company server logs shows that they were confused by information about 119,467 digital edition articles between February and June.
Plaintiffs argue that they will adopt this practice. “Free ride” Articles written with considerable effort and expense will harm business interests.
A statement from the Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings public relations office said that the fraudulent summary and article provision via generated AI led to a “zero-click search” that prevented users from accessing the original source website.
“This could negatively affect accurate reporting supported by journalistic investigations and shake up the foundations of democracy,” the statement said.
