Perplexity Says You Can't Copyright Facts, and Retrieval Is the Real Legal Frontier

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Asked about a publisher’s claim that commercial operators must pay to use its material, a Perplexity spokesperson gave a four-word answer in substance: facts aren’t copyrightable. It’s a real defence, it’s been good law for a very long time, and it may be the wrong argument for what these systems actually do.

The copyright fight so far has been about training. Did the model ingest protected work to learn from it, and is that fair use. That question is enormous, unresolved and slow, and it’s being litigated in dozens of cases.

Ai Litigation on JVQ.net: Just Very Quick

Perplexity Says You Can't Copyright Facts, and Retrieval Is the Real Legal Frontier