Several of India’s leading media organisations, including NDTV, Network18, Indian Express, Hindustan Times, and members of the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA), have initiated legal action against OpenAI. They claim their copyrighted content has been used without authorisation to train AI tools such as ChatGPT.
The lawsuit accuses OpenAI of “willful scraping and adaption” of content from Indian news websites, stating that such practices pose a significant threat to the intellectual property rights of media companies.
According to legal filings reviewed by Reuters, the media outlets argue that OpenAI’s actions exploit their work to attract users and advertising revenue, undermining the value of their original content.
The DNPA, representing approximately 20 major publishers, including Dainik Bhaskar, Zee News, and The Hindu, has alleged that OpenAI’s conduct reflects a broader power influence between tech companies and content creators.
The suit also highlights OpenAI’s partnerships with international media outlets such as Time magazine, Condé Nast, the Financial Times, and France’s Le Monde, The Atlantic, Vox Media, News Corp contrasting this with its lack of similar agreements in India.
This new legal intervention builds upon a lawsuit filed by news agency ANI against OpenAI last year, marking India’s most high-profile case in the global wave of lawsuits challenging AI firms over copyright infringement. A hearing in ANI’s case is set for Tuesday, with OpenAI expected to argue that Indian courts lack jurisdiction since its servers are located abroad.
In previous statements, OpenAI has maintained that its AI systems make “fair use” of publicly available data, denying any copyright infringement. Also, the AI company told Reuters that any order to delete training data would violate its U.S. legal obligations.
However, Indian publishers counter that the company’s profit-driven use of their work without fair compensation undermines the principles of a free press, which they argue is essential for a thriving democracy.
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Update [29/02/2025]: The article was updated to retract incorrect information about Alden Global-owned newspapers having entered into a partnership with OpenAI; on the contrary, eight Alden-owned newspapers are suing OpenAI.
