Copyright: Indian news media sue OpenAI

In India, well-known news media have joined an existing lawsuit against the developers of ChatGPT. The Indian Express, Hindustan Times and others are accusing OpenAI of knowingly using and storing their content to play it out via ChatGPT and train their AI models with it, Reuters summarizes.

As a result, the media and other companies owned by two Indian billionaires have joined the lawsuit filed by the news agency ANI (Asian News International) in 2024. They informed the Delhi High Court of this after international and Indian book publishers had already joined the lawsuit. In doing so, they want to give the case a further boost, as it is the most prominent legal dispute in India on this topic, explains Reuters. The companies concerned believe their copyright has been infringed.

In recent months, OpenAI has entered into several partnerships with major publications such as Time magazine, Financial Times and Business Insider, which belongs to Axel Springer SE, to be allowed to use their content. The news organizations concerned complain that this type of cooperation has so far been lacking in India. This is damaging their business.

Fair use or not?

OpenAI refers to the “fair use” clause enshrined in US copyright law when using the content. This allows protected works to be used even if they have not been released by the author. However, the end product of this use must serve non-profit educational purposes, be critical, represent a transformative work, be a parody or be the content of a report. Only then is the use permitted under “fair use”.

OpenAI has also repeatedly pointed out that it engages in a constructive exchange with many news organizations and only uses publicly available data to train its AI models.

Furthermore, in response to ANI's original lawsuit, OpenAI points out that it is not allowed to delete the training data of the AI models, as this would violate the legal obligations that apply in the USA. Indian courts would also have no control over the data in this case, as the location of the servers is not within their jurisdiction.

This is countered by the plaintiffs' argument that OpenAI will become a profitable company and thus benefit from the creative achievements of the media industry, and that this could also have a financial impact.

Stargate

The expansion of the lawsuit is now also taking place against the backdrop of the Stargate AI project recently announced by US President Donald Trump. The USA wants to become the undisputed pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence at a cost of 500 billion US dollars, and initial work is already underway in Texas. As the companies involved also need more data for further developments, it remains to be seen whether there will be a change in the way copyrights are handled and whether the use of third-party content will be taken for granted.

There are lawsuits against OpenAI, not only in India. In the United States, the New York Times is taking legal action against Microsoft, OpenAI's biggest financial supporter. Here, too, the company has been accused of using countless articles without obtaining permission from the author. OpenAI is also already in court in Canada.

(tlz)