• by Ray Schultz , Yesterday

Perplexity AI has been hit with a copyright suit from a new direction: Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. and its subsidiary Merriam-Webster Inc.

The two have sued Perplexity for gaining a “free ride” on their content. They accuse the firm of “cannibalizing traffic to Plaintiffs’ websites with AI-generated summaries of Plaintiffs’ own content,” instead of directing traffic toward them. 

“Perplexity’s so-called 'answer engine' eliminates users’ clicks on Plaintiffs’ and other web publishers’ websites—and, in turn, starves web publishers of revenue—by generating responses to users’ queries that substitute the content from other information websites,” the complaint alleges. “To build its substitute product, Perplexity engages in massive copying of Plaintiffs’ and other web publishers’ protected content without authorization or remuneration.”

In addition, the filing states that publishers like the plaintiffs “rely on those clicks to sell subscriptions to users who seek to delve more deeply into some content, as well as selling advertising to third parties who seek to present their products or services before the publishers’ users.”

The suit, on file with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, asks for damages, injunctive relief and attorneys’ costs. 

Perplexity already faces several other lawsuits, like the one being pursued since October 2024 by Dow Jones. That suit accuses Perplexity of conducting a “massive amount of illegal copying” of content in the New York Post and Wall Street Journal.

The company has also been threatened by the BBC and Conde Nast. And it recently has been sued on similar grounds by two Japanese publishers. 

However, Perplexity has signed content licensing deals with publishers like Gannett. And it recently launched a subscription program that it says will ensure that “publishers and journalists benefit from their contributions to a better internet.”

Britannica was founded in 1768, and Merriam-Webster was founded in 1831. Both have expanded from print to digital products.