CIR Sues Microsoft And OpenAI For Alleged Violations Of Copyright
JAKARTA - The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), a non-profit organization that produces Mother Jones and Reveal, announced on Thursday 27 June that they are suing Microsoft and OpenAI for alleged copyright infringement. This follows similar steps by The New York Times and several other media outlets.
"OpenAI and Microsoft are starting to suck up our stories to make their products stronger, but they have never asked for permission or offered compensation, unlike any other organization that licenses our material," Monika Bauerlein, CEO of the Center for Investigative Reporting, said in a statement.
"The behavior of these free passengers is not only unfair, but also a copyright infringement. Journalists' work, both in CIR and elsewhere, is very valuable, and OpenAI and Microsoft know about it," said Bauerlein.
CIR lawyers argued in a lawsuit that OpenAI and Microsoft copied their content, damaged relations with readers and partners, and stripped them of their income.
CIR joins many other parties in filing legal action against OpenAI and Microsoft. The New York Times has spent $1 million on its lawsuit against the two companies.
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The group, which consists of eight publications owned by Hedge fund Alden Global Capital, including the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune, is also suing, along with The Intercept, Raw Story, AlterNet, and The Denver Post.
The group of writers has also sued OpenAI, although a lawsuit filed by a group including comedian Sarah Silverman has partially been rejected.
Several media organizations have signed licensing deals with OpenAI, including The Associated Press, Axel Springer, Financial Times, Dotdash kiosk, News Corp, Vox Media (the parent company of The Verge), The Atlantic, and Time.
"We are working collaboratively with the news industry and partnering with global news publishers to showcase their content in our products such as ChatGPT, including summarys, citations, and contributions, to redirect traffic to the original article," an OpenAI spokesperson told CNBC about CIR's lawsuit.