NYT plaintiffs unseal OpenAI and Microsoft quotes attacking fair-use defense

Key points

• OpenAI ChatGPT head Nick Turley wrote publishers face an existential threat from largely substitutive products.TechCrunch
• Microsoft’s Brent Hecht called scraping news for training the largest theft of labor in human history.TechCrunchArs Technica
• Microsoft data cited click-through drops of as much as 93% for The New York Times versus Bing search.TechCrunch
• Filing says OpenAI mid-training datasets held more than 91,692 copies of plaintiffs’ works.TechCrunch
• Greg Brockman replied “ah nice” when told of a hack around The New York Times paywall.TechCrunchArs Technica
• Microsoft said Nadella’s and Hecht’s remarks do not represent the company’s copyright legal position.Ars Technica

Sources3 articles across 3 outlets

• Ars Technica

  • Microsoft exec called AI scraping the “largest theft of labor in human history”Sept. 17, 2026

• CourtListener RECAP

  • Unredacted summary-judgment materials, New York Times Co. v. Microsoft Corp. (S.D.N.Y.)Sept. 17, 2026

• TechCrunch

  • Microsoft exec called AI scraping ‘the largest theft of labor in human history,' new unredacted filings revealSept. 17, 2026

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