Scoop: DOJ's copyright filing took key agencies by surprise
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The Department of Justice's statement of interest supporting OpenAI and Microsoft in the New York Times' copyright infringement lawsuit surprised critical agencies like the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Copyright Office, sources told Axios.
Why it matters: Statements of interest allow the government to declare an official position on a legal matter in private lawsuits. While not binding, they can hold significant weight and help persuade cases.
Zoom in: The Times' lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft argues AI firms illegally stole their copyrighted works to train their large language models, and that AI-generated outputs unlawfully produced market substitutions.
- The DOJ's SOI argues copyrighted works to train models should be considered fair use because that practice is new and transformative, but also says outputs aren't necessarily covered by that same legal argument.
- Unlike many SOIs, no career antitrust attorneys signed the filing alongside senior DOJ officials.
Between the lines: Publishers have criticized the claims in the SOI, including the idea that enforcing copyright laws is too cumbersome and would threaten America's AI dominance over foreign rivals.
- Vivek Shah, CEO of publicly traded publishing behemoth Ziff Davis, pointed out in a recent op-ed that the government's argument is muddled.
- The DOJ argues in its brief that licensing enforcement is cumbersome, but doesn't take a position on whether a licensing regime is feasible.
Reality check: The fact that the government's position on this issue was not coordinated among the bodies that work closely on it, especially the Copyright Office, is notable, but not shocking.
- President Trump abruptly fired the Copyright Office's longtime director, Shira Perlmutter, last year. Perlmutter sued to block the move, and the legal process is ongoing.
- Last year, the DOJ settled an antitrust lawsuit brought by the Biden administration that sought to break up LiveNation and Ticketmaster, despite bipartisan backing for the case.
- Shortly after that decision, made by a small group of DOJ lawyers, the Wall Street Journal reported that career attorneys working on the case learned about the settlement when the court did.
- The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Copyright Office declined to comment. The Justice Department didn't respond to a request for comment.
The big picture: The Trump administration has a history of supporting AI firms, media allies and parties targeting certain outlets in key lawsuits.
- This week, it filed an SOI in favor of Paramount Skydance's request for a bond from state attorneys general seeking to block its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery via an antitrust suit.
- It filed an SOI supporting an antitrust claim brought by the Children's Health Defense against several news outlets in 2025.
- The DOJ and the FCC had an unusually synchronized approval for the merger between Nexstar and Tegna in March, allowing the companies to close almost immediately after.
The bottom line: The DOJ's unilateral effort to shape the copyright debate follows a pattern of efforts to influence the outcomes of media-related legal cases.
