Nikkei and Asahi sue Perplexity for unauthorized use of articles
Nikkei and Asahi demand 4.4 billion yen in damages from Perplexity and set a legal precedent against unlicensed AI usage.
Two of Japan's largest media houses, Nikkei and Asahi Shimbun, have filed a lawsuit in Tokyo against the AI search engine Perplexity. Both groups accuse the company of copying and storing article content from their servers without permission. Additionally, a technical protection mechanism designed to prevent this was deliberately ignored.
The publishers demand 2.2 billion yen (around 15 million dollars) in damages and the deletion of the affected articles. The lawsuits state that Perplexity generated responses that were falsely attributed to the newspapers, thereby undermining the credibility of the editorial teams.
Nikkei declared, 'Perplexity's approach is large-scale, ongoing free-riding on journalistic work, for which reporters invest immense time and effort, while Perplexity provides no compensation.' The companies warn that the foundation of journalism is at risk if this practice is not stopped.
With the lawsuit, Nikkei and Asahi join a growing number of international media companies taking legal action against AI firms. Yomiuri, Japan's largest-circulation daily newspaper, as well as international players like the New York Times, Condé Nast, and Dow Jones, have already targeted Perplexity for using their content.
Perplexity refers to existing revenue-sharing models with selected partners such as Time, Fortune, and Spiegel. These agreements provide for payments when articles appear as sources in the answers. So far, however, the start-up's revenues primarily rely on subscriptions; according to their own statements, over 30 million users access the platform, most of them in the USA.
Lawyers see Japanese proceedings as precedents.
