News agency ANI sues OpenAI for alleged copyright infringement

News agency ANI sues OpenAI for alleged copyright infringement
19 Nov 2024

Asian News International (ANI), one of India's top news agencies, has sued OpenAI in the Delhi High Court.

In the 287-page lawsuit, ANI claims the AI company used its content without permission to train its AI models and generated false information in the name of the news agency.

This is the first time an Indian media organization has sued OpenAI over copyright claims.

Court summons OpenAI, next hearing in January
Legal proceedings

During the initial hearing, Justice Amit Bansal issued a summons to OpenAI. The court refrained from issuing an injunction order immediately as the case is complicated.

A more detailed hearing has been scheduled for January.

This development comes as OpenAI faces similar lawsuits in the US, Canada, and Germany over its use of copyrighted material.

OpenAI's defense and ANI's concerns
Legal arguments

OpenAI's counsel Amit Sibal defended the AI company by arguing that copyright laws do not protect facts and that ChatGPT allows websites to opt out of data collection.

He also argued that the lawsuit lacks jurisdiction as OpenAI has no servers in India.

In response, ANI's lawyer Sidhant Kumar countered that public availability does not grant rights to exploit content.

ANI raises concerns over fabricated interviews
Reputation risk

ANI was worried about ChatGPT crediting fake interviews to the news agency. The lawsuit points out a non-existent conversation with Rahul Gandhi, the opposition party's leader, as one such example of fabrications.

ANI claims these "hallucinations" pose a major threat to its reputation and can even result in public disorder due to the circulation of fake news.

Court to seek expert advice on copyright implications
Expert intervention

The court intends to appoint an independent expert to advise on the copyright implications of AI models using publicly available content.

The judge will look into further technical aspects of how news content spreads across multiple platforms in future hearings.

This method is aimed at ensuring a thorough understanding of the complex issues involved in this landmark case.

ANI's previous legal actions against tech companies
Past lawsuits

Notably, this isn't the first time ANI has sued tech firms. The news agency had earlier filed a defamation lawsuit against Wikimedia Foundation, the parent company of Wikipedia.

It had also filed a copyright infringement case against Netflix India for using archival footage in a web series, but that case was withdrawn later.