NYT case against OpenAI and Microsoft can advance
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A U.S. District Court judge last week denied most of OpenAI's motion to dismiss a lawsuit against it and its minority owner Microsoft from the New York Times.
Why it matters: The ruling allows most of the Times' case against OpenAI and Microsoft to proceed, paving the way for a possible trial.
Between the lines: The two tech firms never challenged the Times' claims of direct copyright infringement, which alleged they copied the Times' works to train their large language models.
- But they did file motions to dismiss most of the Times' other complaints.
- The judge's decision last week to deny several of those motions to dismiss the Times' other claims gives the outlet more ways to win its case.
Catch up quick: The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement in late 2023, becoming the first major news publisher to sue AI firms to protect its intellectual property.
- Other newspapers subsequently filed copyright claims against the tech giants.
- Those claims have been consolidated with the Times' during the discovery phase of their case.
Zoom in: In his ruling last week, Judge Sidney Stein of the Southern District of New York denied several of OpenAI's motions to dismiss parts of the Times' lawsuit, including its request to dismiss copyright claims related to works older than three years and its request to dismiss claims that they were indirectly liable for copyright infringement.
- The judge did, however, grant some of the tech giants' motions to dismiss certain claims.
- OpenAI and Microsoft moved to dismiss claims relating to the removal of copyright managed information under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Those motions were only partially denied.
The big picture: AI companies that scraped online materials to train their models argue public data is "fair use" under existing copyright law.
- That assertion is widely contested by content owners, but it won't be settled legally until U.S. courts rule on the issue and/or new legislation updates copyright rules.
- The Times' case against OpenAI and Microsoft is being closely watched by the media industry, as its outcome could set a historic copyright precedent for the AI era.
What's next: After the discovery phase of the case is complete, all parties will submit argument briefs for a summary judgement that a judge will rule on to decide whether the case proceeds to a jury trial. If the judge rules against the Times, it will have the right to appeal.
