The Canadian news companies’ legal document claiming OpenAI of breaching copyright laws did not mention Microsoft. Credit: hafakot/Shutterstock.

Five Canadian news media companies have initiated legal action against OpenAI, claiming the artificial intelligence company of breaching copyright laws, reports Reuters.

The companies, Torstar, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, and CBC/Radio-Canada, alleged OpenAI of [web] scraping content without permission or compensation for developing its products.

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This lawsuit is part of a growing trend of legal actions against OpenAI and other tech companies by various copyright owners, including authors, visual artists, and music publishers.

“Journalism is in the public interest. OpenAI using other companies’ journalism for their own commercial gain is not. It’s illegal,” they said in a statement.

In a recent development, a New York federal judge dismissed a similar lawsuit against OpenAI on 7 November 2024, which claimed misuse of articles from Raw Story and AlterNet.

However, the Canadian companies have filed an 84-page statement of claim in Ontario’s superior court of justice, seeking damages and a permanent injunction to prevent OpenAI from using their material without consent.

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“Rather than seek to obtain the information legally, OpenAI has elected to brazenly misappropriate the News Media Companies’ valuable intellectual property and convert it for its own uses, including commercial uses, without consent or consideration,” they said in the filing.

“The News Media Companies have never received from OpenAI any form of consideration, including payment, in exchange for OpenAI’s use of their works.”

In response, the artificial intelligence company said that its models were trained on publicly available data, grounded in fair use and related international copyright principles that were fair for creators.

“We collaborate closely with news publishers, including in the display, attribution and links to their content in ChatGPT search, and offer them easy ways to opt out should they so desire,” a spokesperson told the news publication via email.

The Canadian news companies’ legal document did not mention Microsoft, a major backer of OpenAI.