{"id":45889,"date":"2025-08-20T07:27:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T11:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalcontentnext.org\/?p=45889"},"modified":"2025-08-19T15:35:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T19:35:31","slug":"ai-on-trial-copyright-paywalls-and-publisher-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalcontentnext.org\/blog\/2025\/08\/20\/ai-on-trial-copyright-paywalls-and-publisher-power\/","title":{"rendered":"AI on trial: copyright, paywalls, and publisher power"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"shariff shariff-align-flex-start shariff-widget-align-flex-start\"><ul class=\"shariff-buttons theme-round orientation-horizontal buttonsize-medium\"><li class=\"shariff-button twitter shariff-nocustomcolor\" style=\"background-color:#595959\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcontentnext.org%2Fblog%2F2025%2F08%2F20%2Fai-on-trial-copyright-paywalls-and-publisher-power%2F&text=AI%20on%20trial%3A%20copyright%2C%20paywalls%2C%20and%20publisher%20power&via=DCNorg\" title=\"Share on X\" aria-label=\"Share on X\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; background-color:#000; color:#fff\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"shariff-icon\" style=\"\"><svg width=\"32px\" height=\"20px\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\"><path fill=\"#000\" d=\"M14.258 10.152L23.176 0h-2.113l-7.747 8.813L7.133 0H0l9.352 13.328L0 23.973h2.113l8.176-9.309 6.531 9.309h7.133zm-2.895 3.293l-.949-1.328L2.875 1.56h3.246l6.086 8.523.945 1.328 7.91 11.078h-3.246zm0 0\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"shariff-button linkedin shariff-nocustomcolor\" style=\"background-color:#1488bf\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/sharing\/share-offsite\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcontentnext.org%2Fblog%2F2025%2F08%2F20%2Fai-on-trial-copyright-paywalls-and-publisher-power%2F\" title=\"Share on LinkedIn\" aria-label=\"Share on LinkedIn\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; background-color:#0077b5; color:#fff\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"shariff-icon\" style=\"\"><svg width=\"32px\" height=\"20px\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 27 32\"><path fill=\"#0077b5\" d=\"M6.2 11.2v17.7h-5.9v-17.7h5.9zM6.6 5.7q0 1.3-0.9 2.2t-2.4 0.9h0q-1.5 0-2.4-0.9t-0.9-2.2 0.9-2.2 2.4-0.9 2.4 0.9 0.9 2.2zM27.4 18.7v10.1h-5.9v-9.5q0-1.9-0.7-2.9t-2.3-1.1q-1.1 0-1.9 0.6t-1.2 1.5q-0.2 0.5-0.2 1.4v9.9h-5.9q0-7.1 0-11.6t0-5.3l0-0.9h5.9v2.6h0q0.4-0.6 0.7-1t1-0.9 1.6-0.8 2-0.3q3 0 4.9 2t1.9 6z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"shariff-button mastodon shariff-nocustomcolor\" style=\"background-color:#563ACC\"><a href=\"https:\/\/s2f.kytta.dev\/?text=AI%20on%20trial%3A%20copyright%2C%20paywalls%2C%20and%20publisher%20power https%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcontentnext.org%2Fblog%2F2025%2F08%2F20%2Fai-on-trial-copyright-paywalls-and-publisher-power%2F\" title=\"Share on Mastodon\" aria-label=\"Share on Mastodon\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; background-color:#6364FF; color:#fff\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"shariff-icon\" style=\"\"><svg width=\"75\" height=\"79\" viewBox=\"0 0 75 79\" fill=\"none\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"M37.813-.025C32.462-.058 27.114.13 21.79.598c-8.544.621-17.214 5.58-20.203 13.931C-1.12 23.318.408 32.622.465 41.65c.375 7.316.943 14.78 3.392 21.73 4.365 9.465 14.781 14.537 24.782 15.385 7.64.698 15.761-.213 22.517-4.026a54.1 54.1 0 0 0 .01-6.232c-6.855 1.316-14.101 2.609-21.049 1.074-3.883-.88-6.876-4.237-7.25-8.215-1.53-3.988 3.78-.43 5.584-.883 9.048 1.224 18.282.776 27.303-.462 7.044-.837 14.26-4.788 16.65-11.833 2.263-6.135 1.215-12.79 1.698-19.177.06-3.84.09-7.692-.262-11.52C72.596 7.844 63.223.981 53.834.684a219.453 219.453 0 0 0-16.022-.71zm11.294 12.882c5.5-.067 10.801 4.143 11.67 9.653.338 1.48.471 3 .471 4.515v21.088h-8.357c-.07-7.588.153-15.182-.131-22.765-.587-4.368-7.04-5.747-9.672-2.397-2.422 3.04-1.47 7.155-1.67 10.735v6.392h-8.307c-.146-4.996.359-10.045-.404-15.002-1.108-4.218-7.809-5.565-10.094-1.666-1.685 3.046-.712 6.634-.976 9.936v14.767h-8.354c.109-8.165-.238-16.344.215-24.5.674-5.346 5.095-10.389 10.676-10.627 4.902-.739 10.103 2.038 12.053 6.631.375 1.435 1.76 1.932 1.994.084 1.844-3.704 5.501-6.739 9.785-6.771.367-.044.735-.068 1.101-.073z\"\/><defs><linearGradient id=\"paint0_linear_549_34\" x1=\"37.0692\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"37.0692\" y2=\"79\" gradientUnits=\"userSpaceOnUse\"><stop stop-color=\"#6364FF\"\/><stop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#563ACC\"\/><\/linearGradient><\/defs><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n<p>On June 23, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled in Bartz, et al. v. Anthropic (N.D. Cal.) that Anthropic\u2019s use of copyrighted works to train its AI models was \u201cexceedingly transformative.\u201d The court ruled in favor of Anthropic in three of the four fair use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.copyright.gov\/fair-use\/\">factors<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Anthropic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/tech\/tech-news\/federal-judge-rules-copyrighted-books-are-fair-use-ai-training-rcna214766\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">praised<\/a> the mostly favorable ruling, it was left to contend Judge Alsup\u2019s finding that the company\u2019s use of pirated material was <em>not<\/em> fair use. Drawing a firm line in the sand, he called the practice \u201cinherently, irredeemably infringing even if the pirated copies are immediately used for the transformative use and immediately discarded.\u201d He also warned of the potential for \u201ca trial on the pirated copies used to create Anthropic\u2019s central library and the resulting damages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, it wasn\u2019t that warning that set off what Professor Edward Lee <a href=\"https:\/\/chatgptiseatingtheworld.com\/2025\/07\/21\/facing-business-ending-liability-anthropic-adds-another-attorney-to-defense-team\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">called<\/a> \u201ca legal fight for [Anthropic\u2019s] very existence.\u201d Rather, it was a move from Judge Alsup that arrived nearly a month after the highly publicized Bartz decision. And this move has significant implications for media companies navigating the uncharted territory of generative AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-1-5-trillion-dollar-question\">The 1.5 trillion-dollar question<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>On July 17, Judge Alsup granted class certification to the authors whose pirated books were obtained by Anthropic in Bartz, et al. v. Anthropic(N.D. Cal.) (specifically, the LibGen &amp;PiLiMi classes were certified, while the Book3 class was not.) \u00a0In his ruling, Judge Alsup found that members of the class can be identified by data maintained by Anthropic, and that there is a commonality in the issues in the authors\u2019 complaint and Anthropic\u2019s defense.\u00a0Judge Alsup also found that the authors need class certification to face the \u201cformidable\u201d resources of Anthropic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In certifying this class, Judge Alsup made Anthropic possibly liable for what the company argues are \u201cruinous statutory damages.\u201d With damages that could reach $150,000 per copyrighted work, and a class that could encompass up to 7 million copyrighted works, Anthropic could soon face a $1.5 trillion payout to class members, a sum that would be nearly 25 times its estimated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2025-03-03\/anthropic-finalizes-megaround-at-61-5-billion-valuation?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">market value<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-it-means-for-the-ai-and-media-industries\">What it means for the AI and media industries<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>On July 14, Anthropic filed a motion requesting Judge Alsup to either allow an appeal to the 9<sup>th<\/sup> Circuit or reconsider his judgement on the piracy question, taking into consideration the recent ruling in <a href=\"https:\/\/mashable.com\/article\/kadrey-v-meta-judge-rules-against-plaintiffs?test_uuid=003aGE6xTMbhuvdzpnH5X4Q&amp;test_variant=a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kadrey v. Meta Platforms, Inc.<\/a> by District Judge Vince Chhabria. In it, the company clearly laid out the industry\u2019s fear that, if Judge Alsup\u2019s judgement on piracy were to be widely adopted, \u201ctraining by any company that downloaded works from third-party websites like LibGen or Books3 could constitute copyright infringement.\u201d This appears to confirm that training AI models on pirated content is an industry-wide practice. It also suggests that it is common enough to create a concern of significant legal liability for industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This fear, combined with the class certification, offers a possible roadmap for the future of <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalcontentnext.org\/blog\/2025\/06\/26\/times-up-for-platform-privilege\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">litigation pertaining to AI<\/a> and copyright. Cases going forward, and even ones that are ongoing, will surely include arguments relaying how training conducted by AI companies amounts to piracy. Additionally, facing fears of legal liability, AI companies will be further incentivized to reach licensing agreements with publishers and creatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-where-do-we-go-from-here\">Where do we go from here?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Media executives can capitalize on this newfound concern to secure new licensing agreements. They can and should ensure that these agreements are as beneficial to publishers and creators as possible. In the case of digital publishers, they must seize this moment as an opportunity to strengthen arguments pertaining to how the bypassing of their paywalls is tantamount to piracy and continue to gather and share data that showcases the prevalence of bots that bypass their paywalls to scrape content for the purposes of AI training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To formulate and secure effective licensing agreements, legal and policy work remains to be done. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides both opportunities and challenges in this respect. In her NYU Law Review essay \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/nyulawreview.org\/issues\/volume-90-number-1\/yes-its-illegal-to-cheat-a-paywall\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Yes, It\u2019s Illegal to Cheat a Paywall<\/a>,\u201d Theresa M. Troupson argues that the 9<sup>th<\/sup> Circuit\u2019s interpretation applied in MDY Industries, LLC v. Blizzard Entertainment, Inc(in which theCourt found that Congress created an \u201canti-circumvention right\u201d under the DMCA), \u201ccreates new liability for the act of circumvention alone, regardless of any connection to the traditional exclusive rights of the copyright holder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This interpretation of the DMCA has not yet been widely adopted by the courts. However, Troupson\u2019s argument that \u201ca user who circumvents a newspaper paywall to read an article incurs liability under the statute for the very act of circumvention,\u201d undeniably provides a path forward for publishers and media companies in what may be a new piracy-focused chapter of the ongoing AI and copyright saga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While at first glance the Bartz decision provides AI companies with a significant victory that validates their practices, it also provides publishers and media companies with an opportunity to reframe their arguments to protect their copyrighted material. The media and publishing industry will have to contend with the outcome of the upcoming trial, as well as the fair use precedent set by Judge Chhabria in Kadrey, which other courts are likely to follow. However, the piracy argument introduced in the Bartz case could possibly deliver long sought after victories for the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\"><strong><em>The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of DGA Group or its clients.<\/em><\/strong><\/pre>\n<div class=\"shariff shariff-align-flex-start shariff-widget-align-flex-start\"><ul class=\"shariff-buttons theme-round orientation-horizontal buttonsize-medium\"><li class=\"shariff-button twitter shariff-nocustomcolor\" style=\"background-color:#595959\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcontentnext.org%2Fblog%2F2025%2F08%2F20%2Fai-on-trial-copyright-paywalls-and-publisher-power%2F&text=AI%20on%20trial%3A%20copyright%2C%20paywalls%2C%20and%20publisher%20power&via=DCNorg\" title=\"Share on X\" aria-label=\"Share on X\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; background-color:#000; color:#fff\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"shariff-icon\" style=\"\"><svg width=\"32px\" height=\"20px\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\"><path fill=\"#000\" d=\"M14.258 10.152L23.176 0h-2.113l-7.747 8.813L7.133 0H0l9.352 13.328L0 23.973h2.113l8.176-9.309 6.531 9.309h7.133zm-2.895 3.293l-.949-1.328L2.875 1.56h3.246l6.086 8.523.945 1.328 7.91 11.078h-3.246zm0 0\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"shariff-button linkedin shariff-nocustomcolor\" style=\"background-color:#1488bf\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/sharing\/share-offsite\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcontentnext.org%2Fblog%2F2025%2F08%2F20%2Fai-on-trial-copyright-paywalls-and-publisher-power%2F\" title=\"Share on LinkedIn\" aria-label=\"Share on LinkedIn\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; background-color:#0077b5; color:#fff\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"shariff-icon\" style=\"\"><svg width=\"32px\" height=\"20px\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 27 32\"><path fill=\"#0077b5\" d=\"M6.2 11.2v17.7h-5.9v-17.7h5.9zM6.6 5.7q0 1.3-0.9 2.2t-2.4 0.9h0q-1.5 0-2.4-0.9t-0.9-2.2 0.9-2.2 2.4-0.9 2.4 0.9 0.9 2.2zM27.4 18.7v10.1h-5.9v-9.5q0-1.9-0.7-2.9t-2.3-1.1q-1.1 0-1.9 0.6t-1.2 1.5q-0.2 0.5-0.2 1.4v9.9h-5.9q0-7.1 0-11.6t0-5.3l0-0.9h5.9v2.6h0q0.4-0.6 0.7-1t1-0.9 1.6-0.8 2-0.3q3 0 4.9 2t1.9 6z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"shariff-button mastodon shariff-nocustomcolor\" style=\"background-color:#563ACC\"><a href=\"https:\/\/s2f.kytta.dev\/?text=AI%20on%20trial%3A%20copyright%2C%20paywalls%2C%20and%20publisher%20power https%3A%2F%2Fdigitalcontentnext.org%2Fblog%2F2025%2F08%2F20%2Fai-on-trial-copyright-paywalls-and-publisher-power%2F\" title=\"Share on Mastodon\" aria-label=\"Share on Mastodon\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; background-color:#6364FF; color:#fff\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"shariff-icon\" style=\"\"><svg width=\"75\" height=\"79\" viewBox=\"0 0 75 79\" fill=\"none\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"M37.813-.025C32.462-.058 27.114.13 21.79.598c-8.544.621-17.214 5.58-20.203 13.931C-1.12 23.318.408 32.622.465 41.65c.375 7.316.943 14.78 3.392 21.73 4.365 9.465 14.781 14.537 24.782 15.385 7.64.698 15.761-.213 22.517-4.026a54.1 54.1 0 0 0 .01-6.232c-6.855 1.316-14.101 2.609-21.049 1.074-3.883-.88-6.876-4.237-7.25-8.215-1.53-3.988 3.78-.43 5.584-.883 9.048 1.224 18.282.776 27.303-.462 7.044-.837 14.26-4.788 16.65-11.833 2.263-6.135 1.215-12.79 1.698-19.177.06-3.84.09-7.692-.262-11.52C72.596 7.844 63.223.981 53.834.684a219.453 219.453 0 0 0-16.022-.71zm11.294 12.882c5.5-.067 10.801 4.143 11.67 9.653.338 1.48.471 3 .471 4.515v21.088h-8.357c-.07-7.588.153-15.182-.131-22.765-.587-4.368-7.04-5.747-9.672-2.397-2.422 3.04-1.47 7.155-1.67 10.735v6.392h-8.307c-.146-4.996.359-10.045-.404-15.002-1.108-4.218-7.809-5.565-10.094-1.666-1.685 3.046-.712 6.634-.976 9.936v14.767h-8.354c.109-8.165-.238-16.344.215-24.5.674-5.346 5.095-10.389 10.676-10.627 4.902-.739 10.103 2.038 12.053 6.631.375 1.435 1.76 1.932 1.994.084 1.844-3.704 5.501-6.739 9.785-6.771.367-.044.735-.068 1.101-.073z\"\/><defs><linearGradient id=\"paint0_linear_549_34\" x1=\"37.0692\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"37.0692\" y2=\"79\" gradientUnits=\"userSpaceOnUse\"><stop stop-color=\"#6364FF\"\/><stop offset=\"1\" stop-color=\"#563ACC\"\/><\/linearGradient><\/defs><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On June 23, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled in Bartz, et al. v. Anthropic (N.D. Cal.) that Anthropic\u2019s use of copyrighted works to train its AI models was \u201cexceedingly&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4234,"featured_media":45895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5014,1702],"tags":[2320],"coauthors":[4940],"class_list":["post-45889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","category-policy","tag-ai"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>AI on trial: copyright, paywalls, and publisher power - Digital Content Next<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With billions in potential damages at stake, the court\u2019s ruling in the Bartz v. 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Cal.) that Anthropic\u2019s use of copyrighted works to train its AI\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/digitalcontentnext.org\/blog\/2025\/08\/20\/ai-on-trial-copyright-paywalls-and-publisher-power\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Digital Content Next\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-20T11:27:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/digitalcontentnext.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/AIonTrial.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"867\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adriana Santoni Vicens, Associate \u2013 DGA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@DCNorg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@DCNorg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adriana Santoni Vicens, Associate \u2013 DGA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/digitalcontentnext.org\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/20\\\/ai-on-trial-copyright-paywalls-and-publisher-power\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/digitalcontentnext.org\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/20\\\/ai-on-trial-copyright-paywalls-and-publisher-power\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Adriana Santoni Vicens, Associate \u2013 DGA\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/digitalcontentnext.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5ce5236d95e2243c13f2919cb4277479\"},\"headline\":\"AI on trial: copyright, paywalls, and publisher power\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-20T11:27:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/digitalcontentnext.org\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/20\\\/ai-on-trial-copyright-paywalls-and-publisher-power\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":886,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/digitalcontentnext.org\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/digitalcontentnext.org\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/20\\\/ai-on-trial-copyright-paywalls-and-publisher-power\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/digitalcontentnext.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/AIonTrial.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"AI\"],\"articleSection\":[\"AI\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/digitalcontentnext.org\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/20\\\/ai-on-trial-copyright-paywalls-and-publisher-power\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/digitalcontentnext.org\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/20\\\/ai-on-trial-copyright-paywalls-and-publisher-power\\\/\",\"name\":\"AI on trial: copyright, paywalls, and publisher power - Digital Content Next\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/digitalcontentnext.org\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/digitalcontentnext.org\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/20\\\/ai-on-trial-copyright-paywalls-and-publisher-power\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/digitalcontentnext.org\\\/blog\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/20\\\/ai-on-trial-copyright-paywalls-and-publisher-power\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/digitalcontentnext.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/AIonTrial.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-20T11:27:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"With billions in potential damages at stake, the court\u2019s ruling in the Bartz v. 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