Eight newspapers sue Microsoft and OpenAI over copyright infringement

Legal troubles don’t seem to end for OpenAI and Microsoft as both companies were sued by eight daily newspapers under Alden Global Capital on 20 April 2024.

All eight newspapers have accused OpenAI and Microsoft of using news articles illegally to feed their AI chatbots. The list of eight daily newspapers that filed the complaint against both the companies in the U.S. Southern District of New York are as follows:

1. The New York Daily News
2. The Chicago Tribune
3. The Orlando Sentinel
4. The Sun Sentinel of Florida
5. The San Jose Mercury News
6. The Denver Post
7. The Orange County Register
8. The St. Paul Pioneer Press

The newspapers have sued OpenAI and Microsoft over the use of millions of copyrighted articles without permission

The New York Times reports that the newspapers have sued OpenAi and Microsoft over the use of copyrighted articles. Not hundreds or thousands, but these numbers are in millions as per the filed complaint.

The publications accuse both companies used all those articles without permission to train and feed their AI chatbots, Copilot and ChatGPT. While the filed lawsuit does not demand any specific monetary damages, it does ask for a jury trial. And, added that the publishers were owed compensation for the use of the content.

The law firm Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck which filed the lawsuit on behalf of Alden accused OpenAI and Microsoft of copyright infringement, unfair competition by misappropriation, and trademark dilution.

The filed complaint also talks about how the chatbots of OpenAI and Microsoft responded with the entire text of the articles of the newspapers behind a subscription paywall. That too, without even linking back to the source.

This practice eventually led to reductions in the subscription paid by readers to support the local newspapers. It further hampered publishers’ revenue which usually comes from subscription and content licensing.

In a statement, Frank Pine, the executive editor at MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing, said:

We’ve spent billions of dollars gathering information and reporting news at our publications, and we can’t allow OpenAI and Microsoft to expand the Big Tech playbook of stealing our work to build their own businesses at our expense.

This practice by OpenAI and Microsoft has seemingly tarnished the publications’ reputation

The newspapers have also accused both companies’ chatbots have falsely crediting the publications for inaccurate or misleading reporting. The lawsuit mentions a few examples.

One of them included ChatGPT’s response to a query about an infant lounger recommended by The Chicago Tribune. To which ChatGPT responded with Boppy Newborn Lounger.

It is nothing but a shocker as the lounger was recalled for being related to infant deaths and was never recommended by The Tribune. This is just one example, the filed lawsuit has a few more.

Let’s not forget that in December last year, OpenAI and Microsoft were sued by The Times for somewhat the same reasons. The publication then accused the companies of using copyrighted content to train their AI chatbots.

However, Microsoft and OpenAI have asked some of the parts of The Times’ lawsuit to be dismissed. Both companies argued similarly and said that the publication failed to show any harm done to them. They further mentioned that AI chatbots powered by LLMs hadn’t taken over the news articles’ market.

OpenAI enters into deals with a few publications for compensation and use of their content

That said, other publications have agreed on a deal for compensation by the companies. Recently, The Financial Times said that it is securing a deal with OpenAI. The agreement would allow the AI company to use publications’ content to train ChatGPT.

In addition, the AI company recently finalized deals with Axel Springer (the German Publication), Le Monde (the French News outlet), and The Associated Press for similar purposes.

Not to forget, OpenAI had recently ridiculed and denied all the allegations made by Elon Musk and sought the lawsuit’s dismissal. So, time will tell what will the outcome of this lawsuit. But, one thing is sure OpenAI since its introduction has found itself in the midst of legal battles.

What do you think will be the outcome of this lawsuit? Do let us know your thoughts in the comments below.