ChatGPT Faces Copyright Controversy: News Media Outlets in This Country Sue OpenAI for Copyright Infringement

In November, five of Canada’s leading news media outlets filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the company of copyright infringement and seeking potentially billions in damages. This lawsuit mirrors similar cases earlier this year, including those filed by The New York Times and other U.S. media companies. The plaintiffs claim that OpenAI unlawfully “scraped” vast amounts of content from their sites, copying it without permission, and profiting from it without compensating the original content creators.

OpenAI has not yet formally responded to the Canadian lawsuit but maintains that using news material to train its chatbot constitutes “fair dealing” under copyright law, not an infringement. A deeper examination of how chatbots are trained suggests that OpenAI’s assertion that “scraping” isn’t considered copying might be correct. However, it remains uncertain whether this qualifies as “fair dealing.” In addition to their copyright infringement claim, the five media companies — Torstar, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail Inc., The Canadian Press, and CBC/Radio-Canada — are also raising two additional claims.