Entertainment

OpenAI and Microsoft Sued for Mass Copyright Infringement

Published

2 days ago

June 26, 2026

A large group of nationwide print and digital publishers has banded together to sue OpenAI and Microsoft for mass copyright infringement.

The publishing coalition, comprising nearly 400 news publishers spanning local and regional outlets, alleged in a complaint filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and reviewed by TheWrap that OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot “systematically and secretly crawled” hundreds of news websites to scrape information used to train their AI programs. The publishers said this was done without compensation or consent from the affected newsrooms.

The plaintiffs include dozens of local and regional newspaper operators from across the country, among them Richner Communications, AIM Media’s Indiana, Midwest and Texas operations, The New York Amsterdam News, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, CherryRoad Media, Community Impact Newspaper Co., The New Mexican, Ogden Newspapers, Straus Newspapers, WEHCO Newspapers and Wick Communications.

“The publishers’ journalism was essential to the defendants’ explosive growth, and unless Defendants are held accountable for stealing, stripping and misusing the publishers’ content, the AI boom Defendants orchestrated and benefit from will be a death knell for local journalism — which remains the most trusted news sources in America,” the complaint read.

Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough co-host the June 26, 2026 edition of "Morning Joe" (MS NOW)

The document continued, saying that the scraping of news websites violated the Copyright Act of 1976, the federal law that governs copyright protections and gives creators exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute and profit from their original works. It accused both OpenAI and Microsoft Corp. of three counts of infringement and sought statutory damages, actual damages, restitution of profits and attorney’s fees.

Alongside that, the complaint alleged that the web scraping used to train large language models would further harm local journalism across the country. Without credit or compensation, the tools, it said, would further destabilize an industry already under strain.

“The Publishers have spent billions of dollars to sustain this work,” the complaint read. “Defendants helped themselves to all of it – without providing a cent of compensation.”

“As a Democracy Fund analysis of numerous studies demonstrates, local journalism has demonstrably increased civic participation, produced greater cohesiveness in communities and reduced public corruption,” the complaint added.

This is far from the first copyright complaint OpenAI has faced as its language models continue to grow and proliferate. Both Ziff Davis – who is the parent company for websites like Mashable, IGN, CNET, and more – and The New York Times have also filed their own copyright infringement complaints against the tech company.

OpenAI and Microsoft did not immediately return TheWrap’s requests for comment.

movies

‘Love Island UK’ Removes Casa Amor’s Gabriel Garland After Reported Involvement In Stabbing Incident

Published

20 minutes ago

June 28, 2026

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Gabriel Garland, who was featured on Love Island UK as one of the Casa Amor boys, has been removed from the ITV2 dating series.

“Gabriel has now left the Villa and will not be returning,” an ITV spokesperson told Deadline in a statement.

The reality TV show contestant was reportedly cut from the dating series after producers became aware he was involved in a stabbing.

According to The Sun, Garland was named in court documents in the conviction of Vitor Mazzer, who was found guilty of two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent during New Year’s Eve in 2019. The filings note that the former Love Island UK bombshell had an altercation with the two victims that Mazzer stabbed.

Garland will still be featured in Sunday night’s episode, where the Casa Amor bombshells are introduced, but will eventually be cut.

Garland was 1 of 6 boys entering the villa to test the girls in their couples, while 6 new girls would also enter to test the boys’ loyalties to their couples. The other 11 new Islanders entering Casa Amor included: Charleen (25, Dublin), Mara (25, Luton), Martha (25, London), Olivia (23, Doncaster), Nevaeh (22, Gloucester), Julia (26, London), Tommy (23, Essex), Jordon (28, Surrey), Will (23, Barnsley), Carlos (22, New Forest), and Aaron (26, East London).

The Love Island UK Season 13 Casa Amor twist starts on Sunday, June 28 at 9 p.m. BST on ITV2 and stream on ITVX. For U.S. viewers, the episode will start streaming on Hulu on Tuesday, June 30.

Love Island is produced by Lifted Entertainment, part of ITV Studios, and WPP Media Motion Entertainment.

Entertainment

Joe Biden Rips Into Trump’s DC Vanity Projects: ‘What a Loser’

Published

26 minutes ago

June 28, 2026

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Former President Joe Biden didn’t hesitate to slam Donald Trump’s numerous “vanity projects” in Washington, D.C., including the East Wing demolition for construction of a ballroom at the White House and the ongoing million-dollar Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool saga. Biden ran attendees at Saturday’s Live! Casino & Hotel gala through a list of Trump’s failures and noted, “What a loser.”

“It’s not just his vanity projects: tearing down the East Wing of the White House, making room for his ballroom, putting his name on the Kennedy Center, building an arch in his own honor, even hiring his own pool guy to fix the Reflecting Pool,” Biden said. “Whoa! What a loser.”

He continued, “Look, folks, it’s not just that. The Reflecting Pool reflects something even worse than the narcissism and incompetence at the core of this administration: It’s the corruption.”

“Trump has made billions of dollars as he returned to the White House. It’s simply stunning to me,” Biden also said. “He has no shame. Frankly, it’s embarrassing to the country. Trump couldn’t care less. Making money off the presidency is the only reason he wants to be president.”

Earlier this month Republicans removed $1 billion in funding for the ballroom, a concession that allowed for the advancement of a stalled immigration bill in the Senate. In April U.S. District Judge Richard Leon blocked above-ground construction on the project.

Trump spent at least $16 million for renovations of the Reflecting Pool only for the near-immediate return of algae to the landmark. Footage from D.C. and shared by news organizations and on social media also shows peeling paint.

The White House has insisted the Reflecting Pool was vandalized. “Fourteen police reports have been filed for vandalism, including the crime described in the President’s Truth Social post,” a statement sent to ABC News from the Interior Department this month read. “The U.S. Park Police will continue to carry out their number one duty of upholding law and order in our nation’s capital.”

movies

Box Office: ‘Michael’ Beats ‘Oppenheimer’, Becomes Highest Grossing Biopic

Published

58 minutes ago

June 28, 2026

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In its tenth weekend at the global box office, Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson movie Michael continues to make history, becoming the highest grossing biopic ever with $977.4 million, ahead of Universal’s Oppenheimer. Uni also handled the foreign release of Michael sans Japan and Russia where the Antoine Fuqua directed movie is still in theatrical release.

The amaze-amaze here is that Oppenheimer got to $975.8M off an Oscar season run, which notched 7 wins including Best Picture and Best Director for Christopher Nolan, but also a final territory boost from Japan which went very late on March 29, 2024, eight months after the pic’s July release.

Michael made $9.2M at the global box office this past weekend ($905K domestic via Lionsgate, foreign juiced by Kino in Japan where Lionsgate has a co-partnership deal). Running cume domestic is $370.2M and foreign stands at $607.2M from all territories (Universal tabulating $559.7M of that figure from their own markets). The anticipation is that the movie, which stars Jackson’s nephew, Jafar Jackson in the title role, will get to a billion worldwide. If it does, it will be the second film to do so in 2026 after Universal/Illumination’s Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

Already, Michael is the highest grossing musical biopic ever, having surpassed producer Graham King’s own (he also produced Michael), Bohemian Rhapsody ($911M WW).

Interesting to note at least stateside that Michael pulled off its latest record while being on a 46-day theatrical window to PVOD. Oppenheimer was on a 123-day theatrical window to PVOD/DVD, and well over six month theatrical window before it landed on streaming service Peacock in the U.S.