Two of Japan’s media giants—Nikkei Inc. and The Asahi Shimbun Co.—have filed a lawsuit against California-based Perplexity AI Inc., accusing the generative AI firm of trampling over copyright boundaries and siphoning their content without consent. The lawsuit, lodged in a Tokyo court Tuesday, seeks an injunction and damages of 2.2 billion yen ($14.9 million).
The case marks one of the most aggressive international confrontations between legacy journalism and the fast-rising world of generative AI, a battle that could redefine how machines handle copyrighted news.
Allegations of Ignoring Digital Boundaries
The newspapers said they had put up clear digital “no trespassing” signs—known as robots.txt—to block unauthorized scraping of their work. But Perplexity allegedly plowed past those barriers, pulling content directly, even from subscriber-only paywalls.
In a joint statement, Nikkei blasted the practice:
“Unauthorized use of articles created through significant time and effort by journalists cannot be overlooked. Some outputs even distort facts, creating falsehoods under our names.”
The publishers argue this practice violates three provisions of Japan’s Copyright Act and one article of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act. They further allege Perplexity not only used their content but brazenly displayed their brand names as sources—while serving up “large amounts of incorrect information.”
