Two more major publishers are suing OpenAI and Microsoft. The Seattle Times and Newsday joined a lawsuit wave that started when the New York Times filed for billions in damages in 2023. More than a dozen news organizations have now sued these two companies. The demands keep growing.
The Backstory
OpenAI built the most profitable AI company in history on text scraped from the internet. That text included millions of copyrighted news articles. According to court filings in the New York Times case, OpenAI’s systems can reproduce entire articles nearly word for word. The company never asked permission. It never paid.
The New York Times fired the first major legal shot in December 2023, seeking billions in statutory and actual damages, according to federal court records. After that, the floodgates opened. Publishers including The Intercept, Raw Story, and a coalition of newspaper chains owned by Alden Global Capital all joined the fight. Now the Seattle Times and Newsday are the latest to file, extending a legal battle that is reshaping how courts view AI training data and copyright law.
These aren’t small targets on either side. According to Bloomberg, OpenAI was valued at over $150 billion following its late 2024 funding rounds. Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI, according to company filings. The publishers suing them are real businesses with real losses to show for it.
Why This Is Really a Wealth Transfer
I want you to see what’s actually happening here because most people miss it completely.
News publishers spent decades building archives of original reporting. Investigative pieces. Local coverage nobody else would touch. That content cost real money to produce. Reporters, editors, photographers, fact-checkers. All paid by the word, the hour, or the story.
OpenAI took all of it. Fed it into a model that now competes directly with those same publishers for audience attention and advertising revenue. According to a 2024 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, over 60% of people in the U.S. now get news through social media and AI-powered search results rather than going directly to publisher websites. Every visit intercepted by an AI-generated answer is a visit the publisher never sees.
This is the rich getting richer at the expense of people who already built something. The tech giants used the publishers’ work to train systems that replace the publishers. Then they raised money at eye-watering valuations while newsrooms laid off staff.
The poor mindset says “I can’t compete with OpenAI.” The owner mindset asks “How do I get paid for what they took?”
That’s exactly what these lawsuits are doing. According to a 2023 study by the News Media Alliance, AI companies scraped an estimated $14 billion worth of news content without compensation. Fourteen billion dollars. The publishers got nothing. That number is what drives these cases and why more will follow.
If you’re running any kind of content business, whether it’s a newsletter, a blog, or a small media outlet, this is the moment to get serious about protecting your work. Content licensing agreements matter more than ever right now. A tool like signNow makes it straightforward to set up and execute those agreements electronically so there’s a clear paper trail if you ever need to prove what you licensed and to whom.
What This Means for You
If you’re a large publisher, you probably have a legal team already on this. But most people reading this aren’t large publishers.
Here’s what I would do if I were building a content business right now.
First, treat your content as property. It is. Every article you publish, every newsletter you send, every post you write is intellectual property. Start documenting it. Date-stamp your work. Keep your originals. Build a record.
Second, add a clear copyright and AI training opt-out notice to your website. Many jurisdictions are starting to recognize these opt-outs. It won’t stop all scraping but it creates a legal record of your intent. That matters if you ever end up in court.
Third, structure yourself properly. If you’re a solo content creator operating as an individual, you’re personally exposed if something goes wrong. Setting up an LLC separates your personal assets from your business and puts you in a much better position to enforce your own copyrights. Inc Authority offers free LLC filing and makes the process simple if you haven’t done it yet. This is the foundation of any serious content operation.
Fourth, watch these lawsuits closely. If publishers win, AI companies may be forced to license content before training future models. That means a new revenue stream for anyone with a content catalog. If they lose, the current system stays in place and you’re on your own.
Fifth, stop building a content strategy that depends entirely on organic search. AI-powered search is eating that traffic right now. Build direct audience relationships instead. Email lists. Paid communities. Things no AI answer box can intercept.
The Bottom Line
The Seattle Times and Newsday aren’t just chasing a payout. They’re fighting for the principle that content has value and that taking it without paying is theft. I think they’re right. This wave of lawsuits will force the AI industry to answer a simple question: who owns the training data? The answer will reshape the entire information economy. The publishers who fight now set the terms for every content creator who comes after them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are the Seattle Times and Newsday suing OpenAI and Microsoft?
Both publishers claim that OpenAI and Microsoft trained their AI models on copyrighted news articles without permission or payment. The lawsuits allege copyright infringement and seek damages for that unauthorized use. They follow the same legal theory as the New York Times lawsuit filed in December 2023.
What did the New York Times sue OpenAI for?
The New York Times filed its lawsuit in December 2023, seeking billions in statutory and actual damages from both OpenAI and Microsoft. According to court filings, the complaint included evidence that OpenAI’s systems could reproduce Times articles nearly word for word. The case continues to work through the courts as of 2026.
Can individual content creators sue OpenAI for using their work?
Several class action lawsuits have been filed on behalf of individual authors and creators. The legal path is harder for individuals without major legal teams backing them. Joining an existing class action and carefully documenting your published work are the most practical steps for independent creators right now.
How much money is at stake in these publisher lawsuits against OpenAI?
The New York Times alone sought billions in its 2023 filing. According to the News Media Alliance, AI companies scraped an estimated $14 billion worth of news content without paying. Total liability across all active publisher lawsuits could reach tens of billions if the publishers prevail in court.
What happens to content creators if publishers win their lawsuits against OpenAI?
A publisher victory would likely force AI companies to negotiate licensing deals before training future models on copyrighted content. This could open a new revenue stream for publishers and individual creators with substantial content archives. It would also raise the cost of building AI systems and push companies toward different training data strategies.
