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Bad news for content thieves, with OpenAI lawsuit set to go ahead

Generative AI companies like OpenAI have attracted criticism for using the work of creatives to power their slop machines. This could come to an end, however, if the lawsuits filed against them prove successful:

Let it end

As Hollywood Reporter pointed out, it’s been nearly three years since the first AI copyright case went live. Many of these lawsuits are complex and groundbreaking, with the potential to set legal precedent for decades to come. Among them is a lawsuit from a group of authors which includes Game of Thrones’ George R.R. Martin.

Journalist Winston Cho wrote of the case:

In total, the plaintiffs are advancing three different arguments: The first is that the training of AI models on copyrighted books constitutes infringement, a common theory that most creators brought when the first wave of lawsuits were filed; the other relates to a newer argument over the practice of pirating books from shadow libraries that weren’t used for training; and the last is that answers generated by ChatGPT are substantially similar to the books they’re trained on.

In the latest development, a judge has confirmed that arguments two and three can be considered separately. In other words, the plaintiffs have three distinct arguments against OpenAI, meaning three different shots at winning.

Slop merchants

OpenAI recently released the video generation app Sora 2. Upon its release, one of the most popular videos depicted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stealing artwork from Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki:

Miyazaki is no fan of AI, having once described it as follows:

People widely regard Miyazaki as one of the greatest creative minds to have ever lived; Altman is something less than that:


The lawsuit filed by Altman’s sister is as yet unresolved.

Another unresolved matter is whether the billions of investment money Altman has attracted will ever pay off, with many describing generative AI as a ‘bubble’ (i.e. its stock is obscenely over-inflated in comparison to the value it generates):

Altman himself is among those who described it as a bubble:


In defence of

AI does have its defenders, with one man responding to the latest development as follows:


Authors technically can sue fan fiction writers, but they usually don’t unless they try to monetise their work. There’s actually a recent case in which an author was selling copies of a self-penned Lord of the Rings sequel only for the Tolkien estate to successfully sue them. This is how one solicitor described the victory:

This is an important success for the Tolkien Estate, which will not permit unauthorised authors and publishers to monetise JRR Tolkien’s much-loved works in this way.

This case involved a serious infringement of The Lord of the Rings copyright, undertaken on a commercial basis, and the estate hopes that the award of a permanent injunction and attorneys’ fees will be sufficient to dissuade others who may have similar intentions.

Seemingly, then – by the AI defender’s logic – authors can sue OpenAI.

So that’s good.

We look forward to that happening.

Featured image via Steve Jennings (Wikimedia) / Adrian Long (Flickr)

By Willem Moore

This post was originally published on Canary.