Usage Of Content By OpenAI May Cause Unfair Competition: ANI To Delhi HC

ANI told Delhi HC, usage of its content by OpenAI may cause unfair competition

SUMMARY

The Delhi HC was hearing a petition filed by ANI last year, accusing OpenAI of using its news content without authorisation

This comes amid growing concerns of news publishers in multiple jurisdictions, including India and the US, over the use of their copyrighted material by AI companies like OpenAI

Advocate Siddhant Kumar, who is representing ANI in its suit against OpenAI reportedly told Delhi HC that ChatGPT first used its content to train a language model, stored that data and then made it publicly accessible

Amid the ongoing legal battle between Indian media outlets and tech giant OpenAI over alleged copyright infringement, news agency ANI reportedly told the Delhi High Court (HC) that the usage of its content by the ChatGPT maker causes dilution of its market, thus leading to unfair competition.

The Delhi HC was hearing a petition filed by ANI last year, accusing OpenAI of using its news content without authorisation.

This comes amid growing concerns of news publishers in multiple jurisdictions, including India and the US, over the use of their copyrighted material by AI companies like OpenAI to train their foundational models, without licence, or permission or payment.

During a court hearing on Monday (March 11), advocate Siddhant Kumar, who is representing ANI in its suit against OpenAI, submitted that ChatGPT first used its content to train a language model, stored that data and then made it publicly accessible, Business Standard reported.

Amicus curiae Adarsh Ramanujan said that while ANI’s data was not used directly and its content was published behind a paywall, subscribers with varying levels of subscription restrictions could republish the content.

In court parlance, an amicus curiae is someone who is not a party to the case but can give information or offer advice to courts.

He further said that mere availability of content in the public domain does not nullify copyright protections and added that the Indian law does not explicitly recognise exceptions outside the fair use doctrine, the report said.

The Delhi HC has scheduled the next hearing in the case on March 20.

It must be noted that several Indian digital news publishers, including the likes of NDTV, Network18, The Indian Express and Hindustan Times, have joined ANI’s legal battle against OpenAI, seeking to prevent the company from accessing their proprietary content.

The Sam Altman-led AI giant, however, has argued that it is not obligated to enter into partnerships with these media outlets to use their content and urged the HC to dismiss infringement claims filed against it.

Major music labels such as T-Series, Saregarama and Sony have also expressed their willingness to join the ongoing copyright lawsuit against the ChatGPT developer in the Delhi HC.

Consequently, the HC asked OpenAI to file a response regarding the application filed by the Indian Music Industry (IMI) seeking to intervene in the suit.