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Ziff Davis Launches Legal Action Against OpenAI for Copyright Infringement

Ziff Davis, a prominent owner of various digital platforms including CNET, PCMag, IGN, and Everyday Health, has initiated a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging copyright violations. This development was first reported by The New York Times. In the legal complaint, Ziff Davis claims that OpenAI has been “intentionally and relentlessly” generating “exact copies” of content from its various publications without obtaining the necessary permissions.

The lawsuit contends that OpenAI based its AI models on Ziff Davis’s content despite explicit instructions against data scraping, which were conveyed through a robots.txt file. Furthermore, the complaint alleges that OpenAI systematically removed copyright information from the proprietary content it acquired.

As one of the largest publishing entities to take legal action against OpenAI, Ziff Davis operates over 45 media brands and employs more than 3,800 individuals. The company reports the publication of nearly 2 million articles annually, attracting an impressive monthly user base of over 292 million visits.

In contrast to Ziff Davis’s stance, some media companies such as Vox Media (the parent company of The Verge), The Associated Press, The Atlantic, The Financial Times, and The Washington Post have entered into content licensing agreements with OpenAI. Nevertheless, Ziff Davis joins a growing list of publishers, including The New York Times, The Intercept, Raw Story, AlterNet, and several Canadian media firms, who have opted to sue OpenAI over copyright infringement concerns.

In its allegations, Ziff Davis states that OpenAI has “copied, reproduced, and stored” its content, which is then utilized to generate responses within ChatGPT. The digital media company asserts that it has identified numerous complete copies of its articles within the limited sample of OpenAI’s publicly accessible WebText dataset.

The plaintiff is seeking a court order to prevent OpenAI from “exploiting” its content and mandates the destruction of any datasets or models that incorporate its material.

In response, OpenAI emphasized its commitment to fostering innovation and creativity through its technology. A representative, Jason Deutrom, noted, “ChatGPT helps enhance human creativity, advance scientific discovery and medical research, and enable hundreds of millions of people to improve their daily lives.” He added that OpenAI’s models are constructed from publicly available data and operate within the framework of fair use. Ziff Davis has chosen not to provide further comments on the ongoing litigation.

Source
www.theverge.com