Kyodo News on Monday sent a letter of protest to Perplexity AI Inc., accusing the U.S. startup of using its articles without permission to provide online responses generated by artificial intelligence for its web search engine and infringing the Japanese news agency’s copyright.
Kyodo said in the letter that Perplexity must immediately stop using its articles published on the website 47 News, which features articles created by Kyodo and its member newspapers, and compensate for damages resulting from the unauthorized use of Kyodo’s distributed articles, among other demands.
The Mainichi Newspapers Co. and Sankei Shimbun Co., major dailies in Japan which subscribe to Kyodo’s articles, also sent similar letters of protest to Perplexity on Monday.
The development comes after three newspaper companies under Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, a major Japanese media conglomerate, filed a damages suit against the San Francisco-based firm for alleged copyright infringement with the Tokyo District Court in August.
Major daily publishers Nikkei Inc. and The Asahi Shimbun Co. filed a similar lawsuit against Perplexity with the court the same month.
Kyodo said it has confirmed logs showing that Perplexity repeatedly accessed the website “hundreds of thousands of times,” over around a year from August 2024.
“These accesses have been utilized to collect and reproduce articles originally distributed by Kyodo and generate responses to users’ queries, without necessary permission. These acts clearly constitute copyright infringement,” the letter said.
Kyodo also said that the search service has “significantly damaged the trust and brand value” of its news content by displaying information that differs from the actual content of distributed articles with Kyodo as reference source.
The Tokyo-based company urged Perplexity to disclose the method used to collect its articles and all responses generated using them, and said it will take legal action unless the U.S. company addresses the requests.
On Monday, Kyodo’s 48 member newspapers also jointly released a statement of protest regarding the unauthorized collection and use by Perplexity of articles produced by news media outlets.
Kyodo and Perplexity had earlier held talks about the use of news content and compensation but the U.S. company ceased contact in November last year, according to Kyodo.
