A coalition of Canada’s premier news organizations has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging extensive copyright violations tied to the unauthorized use of their content for training ChatGPT.
The plaintiffs include the Toronto Star, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, The Globe and Mail, and others. The lawsuit, submitted to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on November 28, 2024, seeks damages, injunctive relief, and an injunction against further misuse of their works.
In their claim, the plaintiffs argue that OpenAI “deliberately ‘scrapes’ (i.e., accesses and copies) content from the News Media Companies’ websites” and reproduces their works without consent to train its GPT models. They allege this practice began as early as 2015, stating:
“OpenAI has taken large swaths of valuable work, indiscriminately and without regard for copyright protection or the contractual Terms of Use applicable to the misappropriated content. The misappropriated content includes works that the News Media Companies own or exclusively license as well as works that they non-exclusively license from other third parties.”
Allegations of Circumvention and Profiteering
The lawsuit also accuses OpenAI of circumventing technological protection measures designed to prevent unauthorized access to proprietary content. According to the filing, OpenAI breached the plaintiffs’ Terms of Use, which expressly limit their works to non-commercial, personal use. The claim states:
“OpenAI knew, or ought to have known, that by engaging in and leveraging widespread scraping activity, it would circumvent technological protection measures. This deliberate and knowing violation of the News Media Companies’ intellectual property represents a marked departure from the standards of decent commercial behaviour.“.
The plaintiffs claim OpenAI’s actions enabled the development of profitable products such as ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Enterprise, generating billions in revenue annually.
They emphasize the financial and ethical dimensions of their grievances, seeking punitive damages to address OpenAI’s continued violations. As stated in the claim:
“Through its mass misappropriation of the News Media Companies’ Works, OpenAI has taken for itself the benefit of the extensive efforts expended and costs incurred by the News Media Companies for no compensation.
It has also deprived the News Media Companies of their rights to validly license their content to OpenAI in exchange for fair compensation. OpenAI should be sanctioned through an award of punitive or exemplary damages.”
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Broader Context and Implications
This new lawsuit aligns with a growing trend of legal challenges against generative AI developers. In recent months, OpenAI has faced similar litigation in the United States, including a high-profile case brought by The New York Times over the unauthorized use of its articles for training purposes. Critics argue that such practices undermine traditional revenue streams for content creators while eroding copyright safeguards.
Despite these allegations, OpenAI has maintained that its practices align with fair use principles, claiming its models are trained on publicly available data to “support innovation and creativity.” However, critics argue that removing copyright metadata from training datasets significantly disadvantages content creators, a central concern in this case.
The outcome of this and the other ongoing lawsuits could reshape how AI systems interact with copyrighted materials, establishing precedents for licensing, attribution, and fair compensation.
