On November 26, the News/Media Alliance filed an amicus brief in Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence, Inc., a case concerning Ross Intelligence’s unauthorized use of Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw headnotes to build an AI-powered legal search engine to compete directly with Westlaw. The brief, in support of Thomson Reuters, highlighted news publishers’ reliance on copyright to protect their investment in quality journalism, and noted that uses like Ross’ undermine their ability to create and disseminate original content. The brief argued that the district court had correctly found Ross’ use of over 2,000 headnotes infringing, and urged the circuit court to uphold the basic fair use tenet that one may not engage in unauthorized copying of protected content to produce a product that seeks to displace the original. Noting that Ross’ use was commercial and not transformative, and that the fair use precedents relied on by Ross were readily distinguishable, the brief also argued that “enabling AI companies to divert users away from legitimate subscription-based or ad-supported publisher sites to competing services under the guise of ‘fair use'” would “destroy a rapidly growing market through which media outlets license website content and earn revenue from the AI developers who depend upon that content.” The brief urged the court to reject Ross’s claim of fair use and affirm the lower court’s decision. Read the full brief here.
