New Delhi: A coalition of Indian and international book publishers has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI in the Delhi High Court.
This lawsuit echoes a growing global concern over how AI companies utilise copyrighted materials to train their systems, specifically targeting OpenAI's ChatGPT for allegedly using proprietary content without permission.
The Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP), representing prominent names like Bloomsbury, Penguin Random House, Cambridge University Press, Pan Macmillan, Rupa Publications, and S. Chand and Co., has taken legal action to prevent the AI giant from accessing their copyrighted content.
The federation's general secretary, Pranav Gupta, emphasised the gravity of the issue, stating, "Our ask from the court is that they should stop OpenAI from accessing our copyright content. If they don't want to do licensing with us, they should delete datasets used in AI training and explain how we will be compensated."
The case is scheduled for a hearing on January 28, 2025, when the court will begin to address these complex legal questions.
This lawsuit comes on the heels of a similar action by Indian news agency ANI against OpenAI, where the tech company was accused of using ANI's news content without authorisation to train its AI models.
OpenAI has so far not responded to the specific allegations made by the Indian publishers. However, in previous instances, the company has argued that its use of publicly available data falls under fair use, a defence that has been met with scepticism by content creators globally. The AI company has also contended that Indian courts lack jurisdiction over such cases since its servers are located outside of India.