Issue No. 063 · Story 02 · October 9, 2026

USA TODAY Sues OpenAI Over News Content

USA TODAY and 13 affiliated publishing entities sued seven OpenAI entities in Manhattan federal court on October 8. The complaint alleges that OpenAI copied their journalism without permission for model training and reproduced protected content in its products. The publishers seek more than $250 million in damages, an injunction and destruction of models and training sets that incorporate their content.

§The 79-page complaint brings direct and vicarious copyright infringement claims and a DMCA claim alleging removal of copyright management information.
§The publishers identify reporting from 19 publications, including USA TODAY, the Arizona Republic, the Detroit Free Press and the Palm Beach Post. They allege both unauthorized training copies and infringing outputs.
§The requested damages and model-destruction remedy are demands in a newly filed complaint, not relief the court has awarded. The allegations have not been adjudicated.

THE TAKEAWAY

The lawsuit puts training inputs, product outputs and preservation of copyright information into the same dispute. Its requested remedies extend beyond damages to the models and datasets that allegedly incorporate the publishers' work.

Filing: ESCA Filings

Same issue

Pharrell Seeks Dismissal of Chad Hugo's Copyright Claims

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