USA Today and 13 Sister Companies Sue OpenAI: What the Complaint Alleges

A large group of US local and national newspapers has joined the queue of publishers suing OpenAI. On 8 October 2026, USA Today Co., Inc. and 13 affiliated companies filed a copyright lawsuit in the federal court for the Southern District of New York [1][2]. The filing is confirmed. Everything it says about OpenAI is an allegation that has not been tested in court. TSN gives no legal advice and makes no predictions about the outcome.

Who is suing whom

The case is USA Today Co., Inc. v. OpenAI Foundation, number 1:26-cv-08892 [1]. The 14 plaintiffs are all owned by USA Today Co., Inc., and together, the complaint says, own copyrights in “19 different publications”, including USA Today, The Arizona Republic, the Detroit Free Press, The Des Moines Register, The Columbus Dispatch and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel [2].

The defendants are seven OpenAI entities, including the OpenAI Foundation and OpenAI Group PBC [2]. Microsoft is not named as a defendant [1][2], although the complaint quotes a Microsoft executive’s remarks drawn from another court filing [2]. The publishers are represented by the law firm Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck [2].

What the publishers allege

All of the following are allegations:

• Training without permission. The complaint alleges OpenAI’s models “were trained on copyrighted material scraped from the internet without authorization—regardless of paywalls or other access restrictions” [2].
• Scale. “Upon information and belief, OpenAI’s models have copied hundreds of thousands of articles and other materials from the USA TODAY Publications” [2]. “Upon information and belief” is a legal phrase meaning the plaintiffs believe it but do not yet have full proof.
• Memorisation. It alleges the models “memorized” articles and could reproduce them “verbatim or near-verbatim”, quoting internal OpenAI communications that it says were disclosed in other litigation [2].
• Stripped credits. It alleges OpenAI used tools that removed “Copyright Management Information” which the complaint describes as including “authors’ names, titles, and publisher names” [2].
• Ongoing harm. It alleges that because chatbots need current news, the infringement “is not a past wrong but an ongoing one” [2].

The publishers attach their copyright registrations (Exhibit A) and an exhibit titled “GPT-5.6 Output Examples” (Exhibit B) [1].

What they are asking for

The complaint brings three claims: direct copyright infringement, vicarious copyright infringement, and removal of copyright management information under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act [2]. It states: “the USA TODAY Plaintiffs seek damages in excess of $250 million” [2]. It notes the law allows “up to $150,000 for each willful copyright infringement, plus up to $25,000 per violation” for stripping copyright information [2]. Among other things, it asks the court to order “destruction under 17 U.S.C. § 503(b) of all GPT or other LLM models and training sets” containing the publishers’ content, and it demands a jury trial [2]. These are requests, not outcomes.

Where it sits

The complaint says the publishers “join the long list of copyright holders who have filed lawsuits against OpenAI”, many of which have been consolidated in the same court [2]. On the docket, the plaintiffs filed a “statement of relatedness” asking for the case to be treated as related to 1:25-md-03143, the consolidated proceedings the complaint cites as In re OpenAI, Inc. Copyright Infringement Litigation [1][2]. Whether the court does so is a decision for the court.

TSN has not seen a response from OpenAI to this complaint in the sources it checked. In US civil cases, a defendant normally files its formal response some weeks after being served.

What this does not prove

• That OpenAI did any of this. Every claim about OpenAI’s conduct is the plaintiffs’ allegation [2].
• That OpenAI owes $250 million. That is the amount sought, not awarded [2].
• That any model will be destroyed. That is one item in the plaintiffs’ list of requests [2].
• Anything about Microsoft’s liability. Microsoft is not a defendant in this case [1][2].
• How the case will end. TSN makes no prediction.

The Bottom Line

Fourteen companies owned by USA Today Co., covering 19 newspapers, sued seven OpenAI entities on 8 October, alleging that OpenAI copied their journalism to train and run its models and stripped out copyright information. They seek more than $250 million and the destruction of models containing their work. The filing is real; the claims are untested.

Related on TSN: Not Fair Use: What the Third Circuit Just Said About Training AI on Westlaw Headnotes

Sources

1. CourtListener (Free Law Project), docket for USA Today Co., Inc. v. OpenAI Foundation, 1:26-cv-08892 (S.D.N.Y.), filed 8 October 2026 (court record; includes exhibit titles, civil cover sheet and statement of relatedness to 1:25-md-03143-SHS-OTW; read 9 October 2026). https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/74935682/usa-today-co-inc-v-openai-foundation/
2. Complaint, USA Today Co., Inc. v. OpenAI Foundation, 1:26-cv-08892, Document 1, filed 8 October 2026, 79 pages (plaintiffs’ allegations; PDF read in full via CourtListener’s RECAP archive). https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.674652/gov.uscourts.nysd.674652.1.0_1.pdf