Thursday 17 April 2025
Indian News Organizations V/s OpenAI: A Lawsuit against ChatGPT
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Amid several challenges faced by OpenAI, Indian media groups, and book publishers have united to oppose the ChatbotChatGPT, filing a lawsuit against the American company in the Delhi High Court. News Organizations such as The Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Gautam Adanis NDTV, and Ambanis Network18, other publishers have come together to file a case against OpenAI for using copyrighted content according to legal documents. The lawsuit was filed due to the reproduction of website data by this AI tool.
The November Lawsuit
ANI (Asian News Internationals) filed a case against ChatGPT for copyright infringement on 19 November 2024, claiming thatOpenAItrained its software using its copyrighted literary works.
OpenAIs Take
OpenAI emphasized its commitment to transparency by clarifying that its AI does not utilize verbatim content provided by ANI. Instead, it relies on publicly available data. To support this, OpenAI suggested that ANI could use a “robots.txt” file to block access to OpenAI’s web crawlers.
OpenAI has refuted the allegations of reproducing any content from ANI, citing a lack of evidence from the accusers. The organization also stated that it does not utilize any subscription-based content, as its AI cannot access such material. Additionally, OpenAI denied claims of false attributions. While it acknowledged the use of third-party partners and publicly available data related to ANIs content, it emphasized that there was no direct use of ANI’s content.
Territorial Jurisdiction
Amit Sibal, a representative from OpenAI, defended the organization by stating that it operates internationally and does not have offices in India. Therefore, any infringement of subject matter must occur within Indian territory, meaning that Indian jurisdiction does not apply to servers located outside the country.
Its a pre-Internet era argument which will not fly in Indian courts today, Google, X, and Facebook all perform services through their foreign companies and are party to litigation across India, said Dharmendra Chatur, defending the Delhi HCs jurisdiction on the matter. Chatur is a partner at Poovayya & Co., which advises foreign tech companies, according tothe Print.
The Delhi High Court appointed two Amici Curiae, Arul George Scaria, and lawyer Adarsh Ramanajun, to help determine the court’s jurisdiction over the case.
On 28 January, appointed experts agreed on the jurisdiction of Delhi HC as ANI operates out of Delhi, and OpenAI is a public website available for Indian users. Both experts views were different on the matter of fair use on the claim of copyright infringement, sourced by business standards.
News Organizations V/s OpenAI
News Outlets such as NDTV and Network18 have joined hands with ANI with the ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI, as they are worried about their literary and intellectual property.
The Digital News Publishers Association has filed a 135-page lawsuit, claiming a “clear and present danger” to the copyrights of 20 news outlets, including NDTV, NEWS18, The Hindu, ZEE News, Dainik Bhaskar, and the India Today Group. The case, reviewed by Reuters, alleges willful scraping and adaptation of content.
It expresses concerns that tech companies have excessive power in deciding what content to display and in capturing advertising revenue, alarming publishers.
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