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

Network18 Media & Investments

27/01/2025 05:45

By Aditya Kalra and Arpan  Chaturvedi
       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's improper use of
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 Dainik
Bhaskar. 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.   

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