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More Indian media houses drag OpenAI to court: report
The media giants argue that OpenAI’s actions threaten the financial sustainability of Indian digital news publishers
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Problems continue to mount for OpenAI as a growing number of Indian media houses—led by billionaires Mukesh Ambani’s Network18 and Gautam Adani’s NDTV—have initiated a copyright infringement lawsuit against the ChatGPT maker.
Outlets including members of the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) filed the lawsuit in a New Delhi court, alleging OpenAI improperly used copyrighted material from their news websites through “willful scraping” and “content adaptation” without prior consent, Reuters reported on Monday.
The media companies said OpenAI’s actions threaten the financial sustainability of Indian digital news publishers. They also alleged that the company’s use of their content undermines their copyrights and profits from creators’ intellectual property, diverting advertising revenue and weakening the role of traditional journalism.
The lawsuit was brought by The Indian Express, Hindustan Times, and the DNPA, which represents about 20 companies including Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, Zee News, India Today Group and The Hindu, Reuters reported, citing the filing.
The lawsuit follows a similar filing by news agency Asian News International (ANI) against OpenAI for copyright violations.
According to ANI, OpenAI potentially damaged the news agency’s credibility and reputation by reproducing its content.
Not only the media companies, the Federation of Indian Publishers has also joined the effort, filing a case to restrict ChatGPT’s access to proprietary content from members such as Penguin Random House and Bloomsbury, Reuters reported.
The Sam Altman-led AI research company, which launched ChatGPT in November 2022 and raised $6.6 billion in funding last year, has defended itself saying its systems rely on publicly available data and comply with international copyright laws.
Not only this, responding to the ANI lawsuit, OpenAI said Indian courts lacked jurisdiction in the case as the company does not have servers in India.
“The company has no office or permanent establishment in India, and its servers are located outside the country,” the filing reportedly stated.
On the other hand, global publishers such as the Associated Press, The Financial Times, Vox Media, Time magazine and Le Monde have signed deals with OpenAI, giving the company a controlled access to their archives in exchange for fees.
Meanwhile, the outcome of the lawsuits in India could have far-reaching implications for AI accountability and copyright enforcement in the country.
In case the court rules in favor of the media houses, it may lead to stricter regulations on how AI platforms use copyrighted content.
However, if the decision favors OpenAI, it could potentially set a precedent for how generative AI interacts with the media industry.