A coalition of Canada’s leading news organizations has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, alleging that the company unlawfully used copyrighted news articles to train its artificial intelligence models.

The group includes prominent outlets such as Toronto Star, Metroland Media, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, and CBC. This legal action is reportedly the first of its kind in Canada.

“Journalism serves the public interest. OpenAI’s use of other companies’ journalism for its own commercial benefit is not only unfair—it’s illegal,” the coalition stated in a joint announcement.

OpenAI’s Response
OpenAI has defended its practices, stating that its models are built using “publicly available data” and adhere to international copyright laws designed to balance the rights of creators with the need for innovation.

In a statement to the BBC, OpenAI added, “We work closely with news publishers, providing proper attribution, links to their content, and offering simple ways for them to opt out if desired.”

Allegations in the Lawsuit
The coalition’s lawsuit, spanning 84 pages, accuses OpenAI of bypassing safeguards such as paywalls and copyright notices, which are intended to prevent unauthorized content use.

The complaint claims, “OpenAI routinely violates copyright and online terms of use by scraping vast amounts of content from Canadian media to enhance products like ChatGPT.”

The publishers are seeking punitive damages of C$20,000 per article allegedly used to train OpenAI’s models—a sum that could amount to billions of dollars. They are also requesting:

A share of the profits OpenAI earned using their content.
A court order prohibiting the company from using their articles in the future.

Similar Cases Worldwide
While this marks the first legal challenge against OpenAI by Canadian publishers, it mirrors lawsuits filed elsewhere. Last year, The New York Times and other U.S. publishers launched a similar case, with accusations of OpenAI deleting critical evidence.

Authors have also taken action. A lawsuit filed by the Authors Guild and writers like John Grisham alleges that OpenAI infringed on their copyrights by using their works without permission.

OpenAI’s Rising Valuation
This legal scrutiny comes as OpenAI continues to grow rapidly. According to the Wall Street Journal, OpenAI’s latest funding round has valued the company at C$219 billion.

The case raises significant questions about the balance between innovation in artificial intelligence and the intellectual property rights of content creators.

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