Richner Communications, Inc. v. Microsoft Corporation
Summary
Major newspaper publishers including Wick Communications, WEHCO Newspapers, and Straus Media are suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, alleging the companies used their news articles without permission to train AI models. The publishers claim their copyrighted content was scraped and used to build ChatGPT and other generative AI systems without compensation or consent.
Summary generated by AI from public docket data. Verify against the original filing before relying on it.
Coverage vs reality meter
Prior 2P · 0D · 2N (22 articles)→Recent 30d 0P · 0D · 1N (1 article)
Press coverage leans plaintiff-favorable; no court ruling has been classified yet.
Coverage breakdown — the articles behind the meter
9 plaintiff-favorable · 0 defendant-favorable · 14 neutral articles
The meter counts distinct coverage events, not articles: 2 plaintiff · 0 defendant · 3 neutral events — a burst of same-stance coverage counts once, however many outlets ran it.
- 400 newspapers sue OpenAI and Microsoft over AIBundle · 2026-07-02
- Newspapers take on AI giants in court, warn of ‘death knell for local journalism’NJ.com · 2026-07-02
- OpenAI and Microsoft Sued for Mass Copyright Infringement by News Publisher CoalitionTheWrap · 2026-06-26
- OpenAI and Microsoft Sued for Mass Copyright Infringement by News Publisher CoalitionYahoo · 2026-06-26
None classified yet.
Coverage sentiment vs. docket activity over time
Counsel of record
- Platkin LLPMatthew J Platkin, Ravi Ramanathan
- Court
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
- Docket no.
- 1:26-cv-05320
- Nature of suit
- Copyright
- Filed
- 2026-06-24
- Last filing
- 2026-10-07
Cause
17:501 Copyright Infringement
Entities in this case
Parties
Wick Communications (plaintiff) White Mountain Publishing LLC (plaintiff) WEHCO Newspapers, Inc. (plaintiff) Straus Newspapers, Inc. (plaintiff) Straus Media-Manhattan, LLC (plaintiff) Shaw Family Holdings, Inc. (plaintiff) Sentinel Media Co., Inc. (plaintiff) Rye Media Partners LLC (plaintiff) Rust Publishing NE, LC (plaintiff) OpenAI Group PBC (defendant) OpenAI Foundation (defendant) OpenAI Holdings, LLC (defendant) OAI Corporation, LLC (defendant) OpenAI Global, LLC (defendant) OpenAI OpCo, LLC (defendant) OpenAI, LLC (defendant) OpenAI GP, LLC (defendant) OpenAI LP (defendant) OpenAI, Inc. (defendant) Microsoft Corporation (defendant)