---
title: “But you steal content too”
description: Industry needs an answer to copyright question
---

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# “But you steal content too”

[Alan Hunter](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/media-hunter/author/alan-hunter)  28 March 2025

 2 min read

**Industry needs an answer to copyright question**

The great copyright and AI debate takes a new turn every week. The latest is a [federal judge turning down](https://tomorrowspublisher.today/ethics/judge-clears-way-for-nyt-lawsuit-against-openai/) OpenAI’s attempt to get the court case brought against it by the New York Times thrown out. It’s excellent that this will be tested in court in a case involving the world’s most prominent publisher.

But I found a different take on the issue catching my eye this week. Jeff Jarvis is never shy of expressing his opinions and this week he posted [this](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jeffjarvis2_next-you-hear-news-organizations-complain-activity-7310282825348378626-aXhb?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAtYC40B2BEzj7j7pS_ZyvqvAhDvoyokHj0) on LinkedIn: “Next you hear news organisations complain about being read by AI, remember this: There can be only one original and authoritative version of the Yemen Signal story: \[Jeffrey\] Goldberg's. Every other news outlet rewrote it.”

He’s onto news publishing’s little secret here. Of course, everyone rewrote it – because that’s what news organisations do. They see what their rivals have published and they re-report it (at best) or copy it (at worst). There’s no shame in this. Society needs news to travel and this is one of the ways that takes place.

Everyone knows it happens and they don’t complain. I’m not aware of any case, in the UK at least, where one publisher has sued another over copyright infringement – this despite publications like the now-defunct News of the World famously writing “our lawyers are watching” at the end of their scoops.

However, the problem is that news organisations are complaining about AI giants “stealing” their work when those giants could quite reasonably turn round and say, “But you do it to one another all the time.” This is something that as an industry we need to acknowledge and find a compelling answer to.

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