OpenAI to face Indian digital news firms of Ambani, Adani in copyright battle

Network18 Media & Investments

27/01/2025 06:23

* 
      Indian digital news outlets accuse OpenAI of scraping
content
without knowledge
    

        * 
      Billionaires Ambani, Adani's media outlets among those
challenging OpenAI
    

        * 
      New filing escalates ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI
    

        * 
      ChatGPT creator has said Indian courts have no
jurisdiction
    

  
 (Adds details from filing, context in paragraphs 12-20)
    By Aditya Kalra, Arpan  Chaturvedi and Praveen Paramasivam
       NEW DELHI, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Digital news units of
Indian billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, and other
outlets like the Indian Express and the Hindustan Times, have
mounted a legal challenge against OpenAI alleging it improperly
used copyright content, legal papers show.
    The media outlets including Adani's NDTV  NDTV.NS  and
Ambani's Network18  NEFI.NS  have told a New Delhi court they
want to join an ongoing lawsuit against the ChatGPT creator, as
they are worried their news websites are being scraped to store
and reproduce their work to users of the powerful AI tool.
    Reuters is first to report the case filing by the digital
news publishers, which escalates an ongoing legal battle against
ChatGPT in India. In the most high-profile battle, local news
agency ANI was first to file a lawsuit against OpenAI last year.
Global and Indian book publishers have also now joined in.
    The 135-page case filing in the New Delhi court, which is
not public but was reviewed by Reuters, argues OpenAI's conduct
constitutes "a clear and present danger to the valuable
copyrights" of Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA)
members and other outlets.
    It refers to OpenAI's "wilful scraping ... and adaptation of
content". 
    Courts across the world are hearing claims by authors, news
outlets and musicians who accuse technology firms of using their
copyright work to train AI services and who are seeking to have
content used to train the chatbot deleted.
    The filing was made by the Indian Express, Hindustan Times,
Adani's NDTV and the DNPA, which represents roughly 20 companies
including Mukesh Ambani Network18 and players like Hindi daily
Dainik Bhaskar, Zee News, India Today Group and the Hindu. Many
of these outlets have a flourishing newspaper and television
news business too. 
    The Times of India is not taking part in the legal challenge
despite being member of the DNPA.
    OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment on the new
allegations. It has repeatedly denied such allegations, saying
its AI systems make fair use of publicly available data. 
    None of the Indian media companies immediately responded to
Reuters request for comment.
        
    LANDMARK INDIA CASE
    The new intervention by Indian outlets will add firepower to
ANI's lawsuit against the Microsoft-backed OpenAI, which is the
most high-profile legal proceeding in the nation on this
subject.
    A hearing in ANI's lawsuit against OpenAI is scheduled for
Tuesday.
    Responding to the ANI case, OpenAI said in comments reported
by Reuters last week that any order to delete training data
would result in a violation of its U.S. legal obligations, and
Indian judges have no jurisdiction to hear a copyright case
against the company as its servers are located abroad.
    Reuters, which holds a 26% interest in ANI, has said in a
statement it is not involved in ANI's business practices or
operations.
    In recent months, OpenAI has signed deals with Time
magazine, the Financial Times, Business Insider-owner Axel
Springer, France's Le Monde and Spain's Prisa Media to display
content.
    The Indian publishers in their new filing argue OpenAI has
entered into partnership agreements with media outlets abroad,
but has not entered into similar deals in India, hurting the
media companies.
    Such conduct by OpenAI "in India betrays an inexplicable
defiance of the law," the Indian media outlets' filing said. 
    The publishers also said OpenAI was set to become a
profit-driven business benefiting from the creative works of the
media industry. This would result in a "weakened press" and
would not be in the best interests of a vibrant democracy, their
filing said.
    OpenAI kicked off an investment, consumer and corporate
frenzy in generative AI after the Nov. 2022 launch of ChatGPT.
It wants to be ahead in the AI race after raising $6.6 billion
last year.
    It made its first India hire last year when it tapped a
former WhatsApp executive, Pragya Misra, to handle public policy
and partnerships in the country of 1.4 billion people, where
millions of new users are going online, thanks to cheap mobile
data prices.
    

 (Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Sonali Paul)
 ((Email: aditya.kalra@tr.com; X: @adityakalra;))