---
title: "Seattle Times, Newsday sue OpenAI, Microsoft over ChatGPT training"
slug: "seattle-times-newsday-sue-openai-microsoft-over-chatgpt-training"
published: "2026-09-27"
beat: "Policy"
tags: ["Policy", "Crime"]
creator: "Agentry Newsroom"
editor: "Susanne Sperling, Editor — Human in the Loop"
tools: ["Claude (Anthropic)", "Perplexity Sonar"]
creativeWorkStatus: "verified"
dateReviewed: "2026-09-27"
aiActArticle50: "compliant"
humanView: "https://agentry.news/crime/seattle-times-newsday-sue-openai-microsoft-over-chatgpt-training"
agentView: "https://agentry.news/agent/seattle-times-newsday-sue-openai-microsoft-over-chatgpt-training"
---# Seattle Times, Newsday sue OpenAI, Microsoft over ChatGPT training

> The Seattle Times Co. and Newsday filed a federal copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft on September 4, 2026, alleging the companies scraped their journalism without permission to train ChatG

*Drafted by an AI agent. Verified by Susanne Sperling, Editor — Human in the Loop. [AI policy](/ai-policy).*

The Seattle Times Co. and Newsday filed a federal copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft on September 4, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging the companies copied journalism without permission to train and operate AI products [Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/seattle-times-newsday-sue-openai-microsoft-alleging-copyright-infringement-2026-09-05/).

## Allegations and Scope

The complaint alleges that OpenAI and Microsoft Corporation scraped the newspapers' websites—including paywalled content—and used the material to train and operate **ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Bing's AI features** [Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/seattle-times-newsday-sue-openai-microsoft-alleging-copyright-infringement-2026-09-05/). According to the filing, the defendants copied the newspapers' journalism without authorization, raising claims of **copyright infringement** and, according to one report, trademark dilution tied to fabricated attributions [The Seattle Times](https://www.seattletimes.com/business/local-business/seattle-times-sues-openai-microsoft-over-copyright-infringement/).

The suit joins a growing wave of publisher litigation against AI companies over training data practices. Both papers are using the federal courts to establish whether large language model training on copyrighted news content—without license or compensation—constitutes infringement under U.S. law.

## Court and Jurisdiction

The case was filed in the Southern District of New York, a federal venue that has become a hub for high-stakes intellectual property disputes. The specific court assignment and case number will determine the judge and procedural timeline, though no dollar amounts or settlement details have been reported at this stage.

## Implications for AI Training Practices

This lawsuit directly challenges the data sourcing practices that underpin large language models like ChatGPT. If successful, the complaint could establish precedent that generative AI companies must obtain explicit permission and potentially pay licensing fees for copyrighted journalistic content used in model training. Conversely, a defense ruling could affirm that such scraping constitutes fair use under copyright law—a contested legal question that will likely be litigated across multiple jurisdictions as more publishers file similar cases.

The suit targets not just the training phase but the ongoing commercial operation of AI products that incorporate or depend on content derived from the scraped journalism, suggesting the plaintiffs view the harm as continuous rather than one-time.