OpenAI to face Indian news firms of Ambani, Adani in copyright battle, documents show (updated)

Network18 Media & Investments

27/01/2025 07:45

* 
      Indian digital news outlets accuse OpenAI of scraping
content,
court papers show
    

        * 
      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 quote from filing in paragraph 6, context)
    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 including the Indian Express and the Hindustan Times,
are joining proceedings against OpenAI for improperly using
copyright content, legal papers show.
    Courts globally are hearing claims by authors, news
organisations and musicians who accuse technology firms of using
their copyrighted work to train AI services without permission
or payment. 
        The Indian 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 for users of the
powerful AI tool.
    Reuters was first to report the case filing by the 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 joined on Friday.
    The 135-page case filing, 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", adding that "the disproportionate power of tech
companies in prioritising content and extracting advertising
revenue has raised concerns among publishers."    
    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 part of the legal challenge
despite being member of the DNPA, the filing said, without
elaborating on the reasons.
    OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment on the
allegations made by the Indian news outlets. It has repeatedly
denied such allegations, saying its AI systems make fair use of
publicly available data. 
    None of the Indian media companies involved immediately
responded to Reuters request for comment.
        
    LANDMARK INDIA CASE
    In the United States, the New York Times sued OpenAI and its
largest financial backer Microsoft  MSFT.O  in December 2023,
accusing them of using millions of its articles without
permission to train chatbots to provide information to users.
    The new Indian intervention will add firepower to ANI's
lawsuit against OpenAI in India's most high-profile legal
proceedings on the issue.
    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 and Kate
Mayberry)
 ((Email: aditya.kalra@tr.com; X: @adityakalra;))