On 28 November 2024, a group of Canada’s largest news companies commenced a lawsuit against OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT.

The Toronto Star, Metroland, Postmedia, PNI Maritimes, the Globe and Mail, Canadian Press Enterprises, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (collectively the “News Media Companies”) allege that OpenAI infringed the News Media Companies’ copyright to a large number of works (including news articles), circumvented technological protection measures to access the works, breached the terms of use of the News Media Companies’ websites, and unjustly enriched themselves at the expense of the News Media Companies.

The News Media Companies are seeking damages and/or an accounting of OpenAI’s profits.

The News Media Companies’ claims of copyright infringement are predicated upon the allegation that OpenAI scrapes the News Media Companies’ websites and reproduces the copyrighted works in training datasets and Retrieval-Augmented Generation datasets, all without the consent of the News Media Companies.

Click here to read the statement of claim of the News Media Companies.