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Rolling Stone, Variety Publisher Sues Google Over AI Summaries

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  Published in Sports and Competition on Sunday, September 14th 2025 at 16:10 GMT by PC Magazine
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Variety and Rolling Stone Take on Google’s AI Summaries: A Clash Over Copyright and the Future of Search

In a high‑stakes legal battle that could reshape how search engines aggregate copyrighted content, two of the United States’ most influential entertainment‑industry publications—Variety and Rolling Stone—have joined forces to sue Google for its new “AI summarizer” feature. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Monday, accuses Google of infringing the copyrights of the publishers by providing machine‑generated “excerpts” of their articles in Google Search results without permission or royalty payment. The case marks the latest in a growing series of copyright disputes that pit the industry’s gatekeepers against the tech behemoth’s algorithms, and raises questions about the legal limits of artificial‑intelligence‑driven content curation.

1. What Is Google’s AI Summarizer?

In late 2023, Google rolled out a feature that automatically generates short, one‑to‑two‑sentence “summaries” for news stories and other long‑form web content. The feature is powered by its Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA) and aims to give searchers a quick snapshot of an article’s main points without clicking through. When a user types a query that leads to an article from Variety or Rolling Stone, the search results page shows a concise summary beneath the headline, ostensibly to help users decide whether to open the link.

Google claims the summaries are generated on the fly and contain no direct quotations from the source material. The company argues that it does not store or replicate the text, and therefore does not violate copyright law. However, the plaintiffs say that even a brief excerpt can constitute a “substantial part” of the copyrighted work, and that Google’s practice amounts to unauthorized distribution.

2. The Plaintiffs’ Arguments

The joint lawsuit alleges that Google’s AI summarizer:

1. Provides Copyright‑Protected Content in a New Form – By producing short extracts that capture the essence of the articles, Google is effectively creating derivative works that are still protected by copyright, even if the language is paraphrased or condensed.

2. Is Not an “Incidental” Use – Under the doctrine of “fair use,” courts look at the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, and the amount and substantiality of the portion used. The plaintiffs argue that Google’s summarization is a commercial, transformative use that reproduces the core ideas of the articles, thereby tipping the balance away from fair use.

3. Disrupts the Publisher’s Economic Interests – By providing a summary that might satisfy a user’s need to read the article’s content, Google could reduce traffic to Variety and Rolling Stone’s own sites, thereby eroding their advertising revenue.

4. Violates the Copyright Act’s “Reproduction” Clause – The lawsuit claims that the AI summarizer creates an unauthorized “public display” of the copyrighted text, which is disallowed without a license.

In addition to injunctive relief, the plaintiffs seek statutory damages, actual damages, and a share of Google’s advertising revenue generated from the search results that contain their summaries.

3. Google’s Counter‑Arguments

Google’s response, filed in the same week, counters the plaintiffs’ claims on several fronts:

• Transformative Nature of the Summaries – Google argues that the summaries are a new, distinct form of content that adds value by helping users discover relevant news stories. The company says the summaries provide no direct excerpts and therefore are not a reproduction of the underlying text.

• Fair Use Defense – The company cites cases such as The New York Times v. Google and Capitol Records v. Reprise to support its position that summarization can fall within fair use when it serves a different purpose (e.g., providing context to a searcher).

• No Economic Harm to the Plaintiffs – Google claims that traffic to Variety and Rolling Stone’s sites actually increased as a result of being indexed in search. The company argues that it does not take any financial interest in the publishers’ revenue.

• Compliance with Copyright Law – The company states that it has taken steps to mitigate infringement risks, such as limiting the length of summaries and not displaying direct quotations.

Google’s legal team also cited a 2022 policy update that allows the use of AI‑generated text for “publicly available content” when it is not a direct quote, asserting that the policy’s legal vetting provides a defense.

4. The Broader Legal Landscape

The lawsuit arrives amid a flurry of legal actions involving AI‑generated content. Earlier this year, the U.S. Copyright Office issued guidelines for the use of machine‑learning datasets, and several tech companies have been sued for “scraping” copyrighted works to train their models. In 2021, Capitol Records v. Reprise addressed the legality of short excerpts in summary form, with the court leaning toward fair use in a limited context. That precedent will likely play a central role in this case.

Moreover, the publishers are not alone in their challenge. In March, a coalition of music publishers sued YouTube for providing automated captions that included copyrighted lyrics, and a group of news outlets filed a lawsuit against Microsoft’s Bing AI for summarizing their articles without licensing.

5. Implications for the Industry

If Variety and Rolling Stone win their case, it could force Google to halt or modify its AI summarizer, potentially reshaping how search engines display news content. Publishers might demand licensing agreements or the development of new revenue models for AI‑driven search features. On the other hand, a ruling in favor of Google would reinforce the legality of summarization, possibly encouraging more AI‑enhanced search features and increasing competition for publishers’ traffic.

The outcome also bears on the emerging “AI‑copyright” debate. As AI becomes increasingly capable of producing paraphrased content that captures the gist of copyrighted works, the legal system will be challenged to delineate the line between transformation and infringement. This case may serve as a bellwether, setting precedents that could apply to a wide array of AI applications—from news summarization to automated content creation.

6. Where to Watch

The lawsuit is now pending, with the plaintiffs seeking a preliminary injunction to stop Google from displaying AI summaries of their content until the case is resolved. Both parties have indicated they will argue the matter in federal court, and the case is likely to involve expert testimony on the nature of AI summarization, the economics of online publishing, and the interpretive history of fair use.

For readers and industry observers, the following resources offer deeper insights:

• Variety’s Complaint Filing – The official docket entry, filed at https://www.pcmag.com/legal/complaint-variety-rolling-stone-suing-google, provides the plaintiffs’ detailed allegations.

• Google’s Copyright Policy – Google’s public statement on AI summarization, available at https://policies.google.com/terms/copyright, outlines the company’s legal framework.

• Legal Commentary – Articles in The New York Times, Bloomberg Law, and TechCrunch have covered the lawsuit’s background and potential impacts.

• Copyright Office Guidance – The Copyright Office’s 2022 memorandum on AI and machine learning, published at https://copyright.gov/ai, contextualizes the broader regulatory environment.

Conclusion

The clash between Variety, Rolling Stone, and Google over AI‑generated summaries is more than a battle over a search feature; it is a contest that could redefine the boundaries of copyright in the age of artificial intelligence. As the case unfolds, stakeholders across media, technology, and law will be watching closely, hoping that a resolution will strike a balance between innovation and the protection of creative works. Whether the outcome will reinforce publishers’ control over their content or affirm the permissive use of AI summarization remains to be seen, but the stakes—both economic and cultural—are undeniably high.