Canada’s top news outlets sue OpenAI over alleged copyright, seeking billions

Five of Canada’s leading news organizations have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the company of copyright infringement and seeking potential damages in the billions.

The Canadian Press, Torstar, The Globe and Mail, Postmedia, and CBC/Radio-Canada allege that OpenAI unlawfully “scraped” substantial content from their websites.

Filed on Friday (Nov. 30) in Ontario’s superior court of justice, the lawsuit demands punitive damages, a portion of profits OpenAI has generated using their articles, and an injunction to prevent the San Francisco-based company from further using their content. The plaintiffs are calling for damages of C$20,000 ($14,650) per article allegedly used by OpenAI, which could result in a court ruling valued at billions of dollars.

Cited by the Guardian, Paul Deegan, president of News Media Canada, stated: “These artificial intelligence companies cannibalize proprietary content and are free-riding on the backs of news publishers who invest real money to employ real journalists who produce real stories for real people.

“They are strip-mining journalism while substantially, unjustly and unlawfully enriching themselves to the detriment of publishers.”

A joint statement added: “News media companies welcome technological innovations. However, all participants must follow the law, and any use of intellectual property must be on fair terms.”

OpenAI has refuted the claims, adding in a statement that its models are trained on publicly available data. It said they are “grounded in fair use and related international copyright principles that are fair for creators and support innovation.”

The Canadian lawsuit adds to a growing series of legal actions against OpenAI by international news organizations demanding compensation for what they allege is unauthorized use of their content to train the widely popular ChatGPT.

ReadWrite has previously reported on The New York Times’ lawsuit against OpenAI and its partner Microsoft for nearly a year. In a recent development, Times’ attorney Jennifer Maisel, from Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck, submitted a declaration in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging that OpenAI engineers had destroyed evidence.

ReadWrite has reached out to OpenAI for a response.

Featured image: Canva

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