Recently, five major media organizations in Canada jointly sued the artificial intelligence company OpenAI, accusing it of using their copyrighted content to train ChatGPT without authorization. These media organizations include Torstar, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, and CBC/Radio-Canada.
According to the lawsuit, OpenAI intentionally "scraped" (i.e., accessed and copied) content from the official websites, web applications, and third-party partners of news media companies to gather the vast amounts of text data required to develop its GPT models, without obtaining the necessary consent or authorization. Furthermore, OpenAI continued to access, copy, and scrape content from these news media companies upon user requests.
The five media organizations pointed out that they have invested "hundreds of millions of Canadian dollars" in producing English and French news content, while OpenAI systematically used this content for its commercial purposes without any compensation.
In a joint statement, these media companies stated that OpenAI's claim of using other companies' intellectual property for its own commercial benefit is incorrect. The statement emphasized that journalism serves the public interest, and OpenAI's use of other companies' news content for commercial gain is illegal.
While Canadian media organizations express support for technological innovation, they firmly believe that all parties involved must adhere to existing laws and use intellectual property fairly. This lawsuit in Canada is not an isolated case; as early as late 2023, The New York Times had already sued OpenAI and Microsoft for billions of dollars in damages and demanded the destruction of AI models trained using its articles. Additionally, eight U.S. publishers, including the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune, have accused OpenAI and Microsoft of "stealing" millions of copyrighted articles.
The current legal landscape remains complex. A federal judge in New York recently dismissed a lawsuit filed against OpenAI by Raw Story and AlterNet, supporting OpenAI's fair use defense and finding that the plaintiffs could not demonstrate sufficient harm. However, The Intercept achieved partial victory in a similar case, claiming that OpenAI had removed copyright management information, such as titles and author names, without authorization, allowing the lawsuit to proceed.
Meanwhile, OpenAI has begun to establish partnership agreements with certain media outlets, which has drawn criticism from media researcher Jeff Jarvis, who called it a "hush money." Jarvis warned that these exclusive partnerships could jeopardize the survival of small, local, and independent publications, threatening the future of journalism.
Key Points:
🌐 Five major Canadian media organizations accuse OpenAI of unauthorized use of their copyrighted content for AI training.
💰 The lawsuit mentions that media companies invested hundreds of millions of Canadian dollars in content creation, while OpenAI did not provide any compensation.
⚖️ This lawsuit joins several similar cases, with a complex legal environment involving debates over fair use and copyright.
