OpenAI ChatGPT Class Action Lawsuit: Copywright Owners and Authors Have Filed a Class Action Lawsuit Complaint Against OpenAI Alleging Copyright Infringement of Written Works of Fiction.
OpenAI ChatGPT Class Action Lawsuit
On September 19, 2023, a class action lawsuit complaint was reportedly filed against OpenAI Inc., OpenAI LP, OpenAI GP LLC, OpenAI LLC, OpenAI OpCo LLC, OpenAI Global LLC, OAI Corporation LLC, OpenAI Holdings LLC, OpenAI Startup Fund I LP, OpenAI Startup Fund GP I LLC and OpenAI Startup Fund Management LLC (collectively “Defendants” or “OpenAI”) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (styled Authors Guild, et. al. v. OpenAI Inc., et. al., Class Action Case No. 1:23-cv-08292) alleging, among other things, that Defendants copied registered copyrights in written works of fiction authored by Plaintiffs and then fed the copyrighted works into “large language models” or “LLMs,” algorithms designed to output human-seeming text responses to users’ prompts and queries.
According to the Open AI lawsuit complaint, OpenAI’s large language models include GPT-N (i.e., “Generative Pre-trained Transformer”) such as GPT-3, GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 and its consumer-facing chatbot application that uses a LLM is known as ChatGPT and ChatGPT Plus.
Who Is Included In The Proposed OpenAI Class Action Lawsuit?
The Open AI class action lawsuit is reportedly brought on behalf of and includes, unless otherwise excluded, the following putative class members:
All natural persons in the United States who are the sole authors of, and sole legal or beneficial owners of Eligible Copyrights in, one or more Class Works; and all persons in the United States who are the sole legal or beneficial owners of Eligible Copyrights in one or more Class Works held by literary estates.
According the Open AI class action complaint, “Class Works” means any work of fiction that has sold at least 5,000 copies and the text of which has been, or is being, used by Defendants to “train” one or more of Defendants’ large language models.
“Eligible Copywrights” under the Open AI class action lawsuit include any copyright that was registered with the United States Copyright Office before or within five years after first publication of the work, and whose effective date of registration is either within three months after first publication of the work or before Defendants began using the work to “train” one or more of Defendants’ large language models.
The plaintiffs named on the lawsuit complaint include The Authors Guild, David Baldacci, Mary Bly, Michael Connelly, Sylvia Day, Jonathan Franzen, John Grisham, Elin Hilderbrand, Christina Baker Kline, Maya Shanbhag Lang, Victor LaValle, George R.R. Martin, Jodi Picoult, Douglas Preston, Roxana Robinson, George Saunders, Scott Turow and Rachel Vail.
What Claims Are Alleged In The OpenAI ChatGPT Class Action Lawsuit?
The Open AI ChatGPT class action lawsuit complaint asserts the following alleged claims to relief against one or more defendant:
- Count I: Direct Copyright Infringement (17 U.S.C. § 501)
- Count II: Vicarious Copyright Infringement
- Count III: Contributory Copyright Infringement
What Remedy Is The Putative Class Seeking In The OpenAI ChatGPT Class Action Lawsuit?
The plaintiff and the proposed class members in the OpenAI ChatGPT class action lawsuit allegedly seek, among other things, the following relief:
- Certification of the case as a class action under FRCP 23
- An injunction
- An award of actual damages to Plaintiffs and class members
- An award of Defendants’ profits attributable to the alleged infringement
- An award of statutory damages up to $150,000 per infringed work
- Reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs
- Pre-judgment and post-judgment interest
The injunction sought by the plaintiffs in the OpenAI ChatGPT lawsuit allegedly seeks to enjoin Defendants from using Plaintiffs’ and class members’ copyrighted works in “training” Defendants’ large language models without express authorization.
