CNN SUES PERPLEXITY FOR STEALING 17,000 STORIES — PERPLEXITY FIRES BACK: YOU CANNOT COPYRIGHT FACTS
CNN filed suit against Perplexity AI in the Southern District of New York on May 28, accusing the AI search company of scraping more than 17,000 CNN articles, images, and videos without permission and using them to power its products. It is CNN’s first AI copyright lawsuit and the first filed by any television network, marking a new front in the widening legal war between legacy media and AI companies that have built their businesses on content they never paid for.
The network says it attempted to negotiate a licensing deal with Perplexity last year and was rebuffed. It now alleges that beyond the copyright theft, Perplexity falsely advertised access to CNN’s premium content to users who upgraded to a paid tier, a claim that, if it sticks, could expose the company to trademark damages on top of copyright liability.
Perplexity’s response was blunt and predictably legalistic: you cannot copyright facts. Chief communications officer Jesse Dwyer made that case publicly, echoing the argument the company has deployed against similar suits from the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.
What makes this case different is the television angle. CNN has video and image rights to assert alongside text, which broadens the scope of the legal claim. The outcome could define whether AI search engines need to pay for the news they summarize. Right now they do not.
Keywords: CNN Perplexity lawsuit, AI copyright infringement, Perplexity AI legal, media vs AI lawsuits
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