Multiple Canadian news outlets suing ChatGPT creator OpenAI

A group of Canadian news outlets has launched a joint lawsuit against ChatGPT creator OpenAI, claiming copyright infringement.

The lawsuit was filed at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Friday morning and includes CBC/Radio-Canada, Postmedia, Metroland, the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, and The Canadian Press as joint plaintiffs.

The news agencies released a joint statement on Friday, stating that OpenAI has been regularly breaching copyright by scraping large amounts of content from Canadian media.

The statement reads that OpenAI regularly scrapes large swaths of content from intellectual property and repurposes it for their own commercial gain.

The Claims Against OpenAI

The 84-page statement of claims by the news outlets outlines that OpenAI has knowingly utilized its many iterations of ChatGPT programs to obtain information from Canadian media without a valid license.

The document states that OpenAI reproduced, and continues to reproduce and exploit, their works since at least 2015, in violation of the Copyright Act.

The news media companies included an approximate tally of the number of works or items that each media outlet has produced since 2015.

Cumulatively, the media companies have produced over 10.6 million owned works and nearly 5.5 million licensed works, which may have been used in unknown amounts.

“OpenAI is capitalizing and profiting from the use of this content, without getting permission or compensating content owners,” the claim reads.

The plaintiffs say they “are entitled to damages, the value of which will be determined at trial, to remedy this unlawful taking.”

The coalition of Canadian news agencies is proposing that the trial be held in Toronto.

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