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Copyright litigation against OpenAI and Microsoft

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2026-09-09 04:41 UTC → 2026-09-09 10:43 UTC · added removed

OpenAI and Microsoft are facing legal challenges in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York regarding the use of copyrighted material to train artificial intelligence models. News organizations, including The Seattle Times and Newsday, have filed a lawsuit alleging that the companies used web scraping to collect journalistic content, including material behind paywalls. The plaintiffs argue that these AI tools can reproduce or closely paraphrase their reporting, which harms their business models. They are seeking financial compensation and a court order for the destruction of infringing datasets and models. OpenAI has defended its practices as “fair use,” while the U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest supporting OpenAI, arguing that restrictions could hinder economic growth and national security. In related legal developments, authors such as George R. R. Martin have filed motions for summary judgment in a class-action lawsuit. These plaintiffs allege that OpenAI used datasets from LibGen and attempted to obscure these sources. They further claim the technology is being developed to mimic specific literary writing styles. Microsoft is named in these proceedings due to its financial investment in OpenAI and its alleged oversight of the company’s operations. The litigation involving The New York Times has reached a critical stage, with both parties presenting formal legal arguments. The newspaper alleges that OpenAI and Microsoft copied journalistic content on a massive scale to create commercial products that serve as substitutes for professional journalism. In response, OpenAI and Microsoft contend that existing copyright laws allow for the use of publicly available text to train large language models. OpenAI further argues that the facts reported in news stories are not protected by copyright and cited studies suggesting its tools do not function as commercial replacements for the Times' work.

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  1. 2026-09-09 10:43 UTC Copyright litigation against OpenAI and Microsoft
  2. 2026-09-09 04:41 UTC Copyright litigation against OpenAI and Microsoft

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