The legal battle between publishers and AI companies has become the defining IP fight of the decade. This tracker covers every significant case. For background, see our analysis of the publisher vs. AI training data fight.
Last updated: April 24, 2026.
Landmark Cases
NYT v. OpenAI and Microsoft (Dec 2023). Discovery phase, trial September 2026. The Times alleges millions of articles were used without permission. OpenAI claims fair use. Expected to reach Supreme Court. Authors Guild v. OpenAI (Sep 2023). Class certification granted Feb 2026. Thousands of authors including Grisham, Picoult, and Martin. Getty Images v. Stability AI (Jan 2023 UK, Feb 2023 US). UK trial concluded, judgment pending. 12 million images allegedly copied.
2025-2026 Publisher Cases
The Intercept, Raw Story, AlterNet v. OpenAI - DMCA theory. News Corp v. Perplexity AI - paywalled content reproduction. Canadian Media Publishers v. OpenAI - different fair dealing provisions. European Publishers Council Complaint - competition law approach.
Settlements and Licensing
AP licensed to OpenAI (Jul 2023). Axel Springer ($25M+/yr). News Corp ($250M/5yr). Financial Times, Le Monde, Prisa Media. See our AI licensing deals analysis.
Key Legal Questions
Is training "transformative" under fair use? Does verbatim reproduction matter? How do non-US frameworks apply? The answers will reshape publisher-tech relationships for decades. Meanwhile, newsrooms must decide whether to block AI crawlers.