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US AI copyright fair use litigation

Updated 3 times since CLSTR started tracking revisions of this situation.

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2026-09-03 05:43 UTC → 2026-09-03 05:43 UTC · added removed

Legal efforts to establish that training generative artificial intelligence models on copyrighted material constitutes ‘fair use’ have gained support from industry groups and the U.S. government. Initially, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), NetChoice, and A.I. Progress filed an amicus brief in the Mosaic LLM Litigation. They argued to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that training is ‘highly transformative’ and serves to promote scientific and technological progress rather than protecting existing business models. This position was subsequently reinforced by the U.S. Department of Justice in federal court filings related to litigation involving The New York Times and The Intercept. The DOJ argued that the training process is ‘extraordinarily transformative’ and does not harm the market for original works. The Department further suggested that requiring compensation for training data could act as a subsidy for legacy media and potentially hinder American economic prosperity and national security by providing a competitive advantage to foreign adversaries. Media organizations and creators have countered that these positions facilitate an ‘uncompensated transfer of intellectual property rights’ and threaten the sustainability of creative industries. In a formal intervention in a Manhattan federal court regarding OpenAI, the DOJ reiterated that the benefits of AI development, including scientific and economic progress, outweigh potential harms to individual publishers. The administration further contended that the legality of AI-generated outputs should be evaluated separately from the legality of the training process itself. The New York Times and other media organizations have criticized this stance, arguing the administration is favoring ‘trillion-dollar tech companies’ at the expense of human creators. In a recent statement of interest filed in Manhattan federal court regarding the copyright infringement lawsuit between brought by The New York Times, OpenAI, Times against OpenAI and Microsoft, the DOJ maintained warned that mandatory licensing regimes could create significant barriers to entry. Officials stated that requiring AI companies to pay for all training large language models constitutes ‘extraordinarily transformative’ fair use. material could favor wealthy, established tech giants and create an oligopoly that marginalizes smaller developers.

Versions

  1. 2026-09-03 05:43 UTC US AI copyright fair use litigation
  2. 2026-09-03 05:43 UTC US AI copyright fair use litigation
  3. 2026-09-02 22:45 UTC US AI copyright fair use litigation
  4. 2026-09-02 19:27 UTC US AI copyright fair use litigation

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