A recent ruling in a landmark copyright infringement case found that allegations made by news organizations, including The New York Times, against OpenAI and Microsoft regarding their language models (LLMs) are plausible enough to move forward. The lawsuit claims that both companies reproduce articles verbatim and provide inaccurate information attributed to them. The court denied most motions to dismiss these claims, signaling a significant step in the legal landscape concerning AI and copyright infringement. While some defenses were upheld, the decision underscores the complexities of copyright in the digital age.
Judge Sidney Stein said in part that the plaintiffs' numerous examples 'of allegedly infringing outputs at the pleading stage...combined with their allegations of 'widely publicized' instances of copyright infringement by end users of defendants' products, give rise to a plausible inference of copyright infringement by third parties.'
The New York Times (the Times) case was brought in late December 2023 against OpenAI's LLM, ChatGPT, as well as Microsoft's GPT-4-powered Bing Chat, alleging that Microsoft and OpenAI reproduce Times content verbatim and also often attribute false information to it.
In Friday's order, the New York court denied: (1) OpenAI's motions to dismiss the direct infringement claims involving conduct occurring more than three years before the complaints were filed; (2) the defendants' motions to dismiss the contributory copyright infringement claims; and (3) the defendants' motions to dismiss the state and federal trademark dilution claims in the Daily News action.
OpenAI filed a motion to dismiss the suit, which in part alleged that The Times paid someone to target and exploit 'a bug (which OpenAI has committed to addressing) by using deceptive prompts that blatantly violate OpenAI's terms of use.'
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