Canada’s leading news media companies launch legal action against OpenAI
TORONTO, ON - NOVEMBER 29, 2024
Torstar, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, and CBC/Radio-Canada today filed a legal action against OpenAI.
News media companies invest hundreds of millions of dollars into reporting Canadians’ critical stories, undertaking investigations and original reporting, and distributing media in both official languages in every province and territory across this country. The content that Canadian news media companies produce is fact-checked, sourced and reliable, producing trusted news and information by, for, and about Canadians. This requires significant investment, and the content produced by news media companies is protected by copyright.
News media companies welcome technological innovations. However, all participants must follow the law, and any use of intellectual property must be on fair terms.
OpenAI regularly breaches copyright and online terms of use by scraping large swaths of content from Canadian media to help develop its products, such as ChatGPT. OpenAI is capitalizing and profiting from the use of this content, without getting permission or compensating content owners.
OpenAI’s public statements that it is somehow fair or in the public interest for them to use other companies’ intellectual property for their own commercial gain is wrong. Journalism is in the public interest. OpenAI using other companies' journalism for their own commercial gain is not. It's illegal.
This claim seeks to address this inappropriate and illegal use of Canadian content, and enforce Canadian laws.
— Joint statement by Torstar, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, and CBC/Radio-Canada
Media contact:
Adhi Reza
Lenczner Slaght LLP