Signals / Sept 15, 2025

Lawsuits, Standards, and Leverage: The AI Licensing Wave Rolls On

This week underscored a turning point: the fight over AI’s use of publisher content is moving on two fronts at once — through the courts and through standards. Lawsuits from Penske Media, Britannica, and others are quantifying real traffic and revenue losses. Meanwhile, the launch of a Web based licensing proposal backed by publishers and platforms signals an industry trying to build the rules instead of waiting for courts to impose them. For publishers, the message is clear: leverage is rising, but only if you act while momentum builds.

Signals

• Rolling Stone’s parent takes on Google Penske Media (Rolling Stone, Variety, others) sued Google over AI Overviews, citing ~20% traffic loss and lost ad/affiliate revenue. Our take: this lawsuit moves the debate from theoretical harms to measurable damages — a key step in reshaping negotiations. The Verge
• Britannica vs. Perplexity: credibility on trial Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster accused Perplexity of scraping and summarizing their work, even attributing hallucinations to them. This means the case isn’t just about access, but about reputational risk when AI answers misuse content. Reuters
• Anthropic’s $1.5B deal faces judicial skepticism The judge in Bartz v. Anthropic raised concerns about transparency and undisclosed claims in the proposed settlement. The takeaway: courts are signaling they won’t rubber-stamp huge payouts without clarity — raising the bar for future AI litigation. AP News
• Really Simple Licensing (RSL) goes live A new Web licensing proposal lets publishers declare AI use terms (training, inference, royalties) via robots.txt and metadata. Backed by Reddit, Yahoo, Medium, wikiHow, and Fastly. Translation: the industry is moving from theory to tooling — making licensing machine-readable and enforceable. The Verge
• Germany’s Bookwire builds licensing playbook Bookwire is guiding publishers through catalog assessment, restrictions, and deal structures to prep for AI licensing. What’s next: intermediaries may become essential — helping smaller publishers negotiate and operationalize licensing at scale. Publishers Weekly

Why This Matters

The ecosystem is tilting toward structured licensing — through both legal precedent and proactive standards.

• Legal leverage is real. Traffic losses and misattributed content create quantifiable harms courts can’t ignore.
• Standards are emerging. RSL and similar initiatives move publishers from reactive lawsuits to proactive contracts.
• Judicial scrutiny is rising. Settlements won’t sail through without transparency, raising stakes for AI firms.
• Infrastructure is key. Publishers who invest now in enforcement and licensing tools will be positioned to capture value; those who wait risk losing both revenue and leverage.

The battle over AI content use is no longer hypothetical — it’s moving into enforceable standards and high-stakes courtrooms.