OpenAI scores a copyright win in court

A federal judge in Manhattan last Thursday threw out a lawsuit filed by the news outlets Raw Story and AlterNet against OpenAI, alleging that the artificial intelligence startup behind ChatGPT used its articles improperly to train large language models.

Colleen McMahon, a Clinton-appointed judge in the Southern District of New York, said the plaintiffs weren’t able to demonstrate harm, though she dismissed the case without prejudice, meaning they could file a new suit in the future and try once again to establish legal standing.

The lawsuit, filed in February, didn’t allege that OpenAI engaged in copyright infringement. That was the allegation made by other news organizations including the New York Times, which sued OpenAI in December 2023 in an ongoing suit. Instead, it claimed that OpenAI violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by removing authors’ names and other identifying information.

It’s a small win for OpenAI as it faces a litany of copyright lawsuits from people and companies eager to prove in court that one of the richest and buzziest companies in the world got rich by stealing other people’s copyrighted work.