OpenAI Beats Raw Story Copyright, Training Lawsuit, for Now (1)

A New York federal judge dismissed a copyright lawsuit brought by Raw Story Media Inc. and Alternet Media Inc. over training data for OpenAI Inc.‘s chatbot on Thursday because they lacked concrete injury to bring the suit.

Removing copyright management information like author names from the outlets’ articles to train generative artificial intelligence tools—absent dissemination of those works—doesn’t qualify as an adverse effect needed to establish standing, Judge Colleen McMahon wrote in a decision issued in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

McMahon denied the outlets’ motion for leave to replead without prejudice, and ordered that any amended pleading include an explanation of why the proposed amendment wouldn’t be futile.

“We are certain that we can address the issues the court identified through an amended complaint, and confident these kinds of DMCA claims are permitted under the Constitution,” the publishers’ counsel, Matt Topic of Loevy + Loevy, said in an emailed statement.

OpenAI builds its AI models with publicly available data “in a manner protected by fair use and related principles,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We view this principle as fair to creators, necessary for innovators, and critical for US competitiveness,” they added.

• The outlets’ February lawsuit doesn’t allege OpenAI infringed the outlets’ copyright, but instead says it violated the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act by intentionally removing author names, titles, copyright notices, and terms of use from their content.
• Raw Story and Alternet argued that there’s a substantial likelihood that OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot would reproduce their copyrighted works without providing copyright management information.
• The Intercept brought similar claims against OpenAI earlier this year, and the parties attended a hearing on OpenAI’s motion to dismiss Nov. 1.

Loevy & Loevy represents Raw Story and Alternet. Latham & Watkins LLP, Morrison & Foerster LLP, and Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP represent OpenAI.

The case is Raw Story Media Inc. v. OpenAI Inc., S.D.N.Y., No. 24-cv-01514, 11/7/24.