Canada’s leading news organizations have filed a groundbreaking lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the tech company of unlawfully using their content to train its AI chatbot, ChatGPT. The coalition, comprising major players like The Globe and Mail, CBC/Radio-Canada, The Canadian Press, Toronto Star, and Postmedia, claims that OpenAI has breached copyright laws by scraping their articles without authorization or compensation.
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The lawsuit, filed in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice on November 29, marks the first such legal action by Canadian publishers against OpenAI. The media companies are seeking punitive damages of C$20,000 (USD $14,300) per article allegedly used, potentially amounting to billions of dollars. They are also demanding a share of profits derived from their content and an injunction to prevent further usage.
“Journalism is in the public interest. OpenAI using other companies’ journalism for their own commercial gain is not. It’s illegal,” the plaintiffs said in a joint statement.
Claims of Copyright Breaches and Profit Exploitation
The lawsuit accuses OpenAI of “deliberately and without authorization” copying content from news websites, bypassing safeguards like paywalls and copyright disclaimers. This, the media companies argue, has enabled OpenAI to unjustly profit from proprietary content, turning the company into one of the world’s most valuable tech firms, currently valued at USD $157 billion.
“OpenAI has taken large swaths of valuable work, indiscriminately and without regard for copyright protection or the contractual terms of use,” the filing states.
Paul Deegan, president of News Media Canada, criticized AI companies for “strip-mining journalism” and “free-riding on the backs of news publishers.”
OpenAI’s Defense: Fair Use and Public Data
In response, OpenAI maintains that its models are trained on publicly available data and operate within fair use and international copyright principles. A spokesperson stated, “We collaborate closely with news publishers, including in the display, attribution, and links to their content in ChatGPT search, and offer them easy ways to opt out should they so desire.”
Despite these assurances, the Canadian plaintiffs argue that OpenAI’s practices violate intellectual property rights and unfairly exploit the financial investment made by news organizations in creating quality journalism.
Growing Wave of Legal Challenges
This Canadian lawsuit is part of a larger trend of global legal actions against OpenAI and other AI firms. In the U.S., The New York Times, Dow Jones, and News Corp have filed similar suits, alleging unauthorized use of their content. Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI competitor Perplexity AI faced a lawsuit for similar practices.
Authors, musicians, and visual artists have also launched lawsuits, accusing AI companies of infringing on copyright-protected works to train generative models. In India, news agency ANI has accused OpenAI of reproducing its content verbatim and attributing fabricated stories to the agency.
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OpenAI has already deflected some legal challenges. Earlier this month, a U.S. judge dismissed a copyright case brought by independent publishers Alternet and Raw Story, citing insufficient evidence. However, the Canadian lawsuit’s demand for punitive damages and profit-sharing raises the stakes significantly.