3 Count: Perplexing Lawsuit

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1: The New York Times Sues Perplexity, Alleging Copyright Infringement

First off today, Ashley Capoot at CNBC reports that The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune have filed a pair of lawsuits against the AI company Perplexity, alleging copyright infringement of their articles.

According to the Times’ lawsuit, Perplexity has been scraping the Times’ content to formulate responses to user queries. They allege that this includes outputs that are substantially similar to the Times’ content.

The Times is already embroiled in similar lawsuits against both Microsoft and OpenAI over their AI training and responses. In a comment, a representative from Perplexity denied the allegations and said that this lawsuit was part of a century-long pattern of publishers suing tech companies.

2: Epidemic Sound Sues Meta Again, Alleging Copyright Infringement of 1,000 Additional Works

Next up today, Murray Stassen at Music Business Worldwide reports that music licensing company Epidemic Sound has filed a second copyright infringement lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, claiming infringement of at least 1,000 works.

The 1,000 works in question were registered after Epidemic filed its first lawsuit in July 2022. That case is both active and ongoing. Both cases allege that Meta has been offering Epidemic’s work through its Audio Library feature, which functions as a curated collection of songs for creators to use in videos.

Meta has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Epidemic Sound is seeking up to $150 million in damages in the latest lawsuit. That is in addition to the $142 million in damages from the previous one.

3: Japan Turns to AI To Hunt Down Overseas Manga, Anime Pirates

Finally, today, Julian Ryall at South China Morning Post reports that the Japanese government is turning to AI to help it combat manga and anime piracy, saying that piracy deprives publishers of $55 billion per year.

The Japanese government has been very aggressively targeting manga and anime piracy in recent years. They expect the industry to grow to $130 billion per year by 2033.

Details of the plan are sparse, but many have expressed concern about whether AI can adequately separate infringing from non-infringing content. Others have also noted the irony of using AI, which was trained on human-created content without express permission, to catch pirates.

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