The Newspapers Are Right — And a Lawsuit Won't Save Them

Everyone's calling the newspapers' AI lawsuit a "righteous battle" — a Seattle Times editor says the AI platforms are "peddling more stolen goods than a seedy pawnshop." On June 24th, 35 publishers behind nearly 400 community newspapers — led by Long Island's family-owned Richner Communications — sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement and for stripping the copyright info off their articles. The Council's read: they're right, and a lawsuit still won't save local news. A verdict is a toll booth, not a business model. The record labels sued Napster and basically won — and it still took Spotify, a license, a product, to save music, not the verdict. What actually killed local papers was the ad-model collapse; AI is just the next extraction layer. The move that survives: license the one thing a model can't fake — verified, on-the-ground local truth. Righteous is the floor, not the finish.⚡ Learn agentic AI free — https://staas.fund/ai-workshop ⚡-----📱 Newsletter ★ https://theagilevc.substack.com/📱 LinkedIn ★ http://linkedin.com/in/petersaddington🎧 Podcast ★ https://www.spreaker.com/user/thebitcoinlambo___FAIR USE NOTICE: For criticism, comment, teaching, scholarship and research. Entertainment only. Never financial or legal advice. Allegations described are unproven claims in court filings.