AI search company Perplexity is facing new legal challenges from publishers even as it readies a red carpet for advertisers.
The startup finds itself a defendant in a new lawsuit alleging it violated copyright and trademark laws by misusing content from The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post. The lawsuit, filed on Oct. 21 by Dow Jones and NYP Holdings, claims Perplexity scraped content from the News Corp subsidiaries without permission. Plaintiffs also said they sent Perplexity a letter in July raising legal concerns and offering to discuss a potential licensing deal, but Perplexity “did not bother to respond.”
The complaint also alleges Perplexity answers user queries in ways that plagiarize paragraphs or whole articles without linking to the original source. Another claim alleges Perplexity’s answers violate News Corp trademarks through “hallucinations” that falsely attribute information to The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post. The issues result in what the complaint describes as a “massive amount of illegal copying” that diverts away customers and revenue.
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