Britannica and Merriam-Webster Sue Perplexity AI Over Copyright Claims
▼ Summary
– Perplexity is being sued by Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster for copyright and trademark infringement in New York federal court.
– The lawsuit alleges that Perplexity scrapes their websites, steals traffic, and plagiarizes copyrighted material without proper attribution.
– Britannica claims Perplexity attaches their names to inaccurate or incomplete content, which constitutes trademark infringement.
– Perplexity is accused of “stealth crawling” websites with crawler blockers and has been criticized as a “bullshit machine” for recreating content without citations.
– Some media companies, including Time magazine and the Los Angeles Times, have joined Perplexity’s ad revenue sharing program, while World History Encyclopedia launched a Perplexity-powered AI chatbot.
The legal landscape for artificial intelligence firms continues to intensify as Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster file a federal lawsuit against Perplexity AI, accusing the company of copyright and trademark violations. Filed in New York on September 10, the complaint centers on claims that Perplexity’s answer engine improperly scrapes content from the publishers’ websites, diverting web traffic and reproducing protected material without authorization.
According to the plaintiffs, Perplexity not only copies content verbatim but also attaches their brand names to inaccurate or incomplete AI-generated responses, potentially misleading users and damaging their reputations. One striking example cited in the suit involves the word “plagiarize”, side-by-side screenshots appear to show that Perplexity’s output mirrors Merriam-Webster’s definition word for word.
Positioned as a competitor to traditional search engines like Google, Perplexity has drawn criticism for what some describe as repackaging original content without clear attribution. Critics have gone so far as to label it a “bullshit machine” that obscures sources and presents synthesized answers as its own. The company also stands accused of bypassing technical barriers like crawler blockers, a tactic reportedly used by other AI firms to access restricted web content.
Despite the controversy, several media organizations have entered into partnerships with Perplexity. Time magazine and the Los Angeles Times are among those participating in its ad revenue sharing initiative. More recently, the World History Encyclopedia joined Perplexity’s publisher program and introduced an AI-powered chatbot on September 8, enabling users to explore its repository of academic articles and verified sources.
(Source: The Verge)
