Federal judge denies OpenAI bid to keep deleting data amid Daily News copyright lawsuit – JS
A Federal Judge Upholds Ruling Requiring OpenAI to Preserve Data
A federal judge has upheld a ruling directing OpenAI to preserve logs and data slated for deletion after news outlets, including the New York Daily News, sued the technology giant for allegedly hiding evidence of copyright infringement.
The new ruling, issued Thursday in Manhattan Federal Court, denied the company’s objection to an earlier court order directing OpenAI to keep any data used to train its artificial intelligence bots — logs which plaintiffs say may contain details of widespread content piracy.
OpenAI executives have argued that they are safeguarding users’ privacy by objecting to any data retention request or order. However, lawyers for the plaintiffs believe this argument is merely a distraction.
Steven Lieberman, a lawyer representing the News and several other media outlets, stated, “This is like a magician trying to misdirect the public’s attention.”
OpenAI continues to fight against the preservation of user data, claiming that it violates privacy norms. The company’s spokesperson stated, “We continue to believe that the New York Times’ overreaching request to preserve users’ ChatGPT conversations violates long-standing privacy norms and we’ll keep fighting it.”
The publishers’ lawsuit alleges that the data used in OpenAI’s ChatGPT includes millions of copyrighted works from news organizations, leading to copyright infringement on a massive scale.
Reports have valued the company at $300 billion, with its ChatGPT chatbox being a key driver of its success. However, the newspapers argue that OpenAI has used their content without consent or payment.
OpenAI has defended its use of data under “fair use” rules, while the newspapers argue that the new work created cannot compete with the original in the same marketplace.
The court has rejected OpenAI’s argument that there is no evidence of people using ChatGPT or OpenAI’s products to access news without paying for it.
The lawsuit was originally brought by The New York Times in December 2023, with other newspapers joining the case in April 2024.
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