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importantSYS.SOURCE: TechCrunch2026-09-17T19:46:08Z

Microsoft Executive Alleges AI Scraping Constitutes Largest Labor Theft in Copyright Lawsuit

Internal Microsoft documents reveal executives described AI training on copyrighted content as 'theft' and 'largest labor theft in human history,' while legal filings highlight market harm and employment risks from generative AI models. The case challenges fair use defenses as courts weigh AI companies' use of paywalled content against publishers' rights.

Newly unsealed court filings show Microsoft privately called OpenAI's data practices "theft" while both companies scraped paywalled Times content, built datasets from it, and warned internally it would gut publishers.

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