Major Canadian media outlets sue OpenAI for copyright infringement

By Merve Aydogan

HAMILTON, Canada (AA) - Five Canadian news publishers have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the company of copyright violations.

In a joint statement, Torstar, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, and CBC/Radio-Canada said OpenAI regularly breaches copyright and online terms of use by "scraping large swaths" of content from Canadian media to help develop its products, such as ChatGPT.

"OpenAI is capitalizing and profiting from the use of this content, without getting permission or compensating content owners," the statement read.

"OpenAI’s public statements that it is somehow fair or in the public interest for them to use other companies’ intellectual property for their own commercial gain is wrong. Journalism is in the public interest. OpenAI using other companies' journalism for their own commercial gain is not. It's illegal."

This claim, the statement said, seeks to address this inappropriate and illegal use of Canadian content, and enforce Canadian laws.

The media outlets said they invest hundreds of millions of dollars into reporting critical stories, undertaking investigations and original reporting, and the content they produce is protected by copyright.

The lawsuit, filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, calls for punitive damages from OpenAI, along with payment of any profits the company made from using news articles from the organizations. ​​​​​​​