Delhi High Court Seeks OpenAI’s Response on ANI’s Appeal
On Tuesday, the Delhi High Court requested a response from OpenAI regarding an appeal by Asian News International (ANI). The news agency is challenging a single-judge decision that denied them interim relief in their copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI, the developers of ChatGPT.
The appeal was brought before a bench consisting of Justices Avneesh Jhingan and Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, who issued a notice to OpenAI. The case is scheduled for further hearing on December 5.
ANI’s Allegations Against OpenAI
ANI has become the first media organization in India to initiate legal proceedings against OpenAI for allegedly violating copyright laws. The lawsuit, filed in 2024, accuses OpenAI of unauthorized use of ANI’s content to train and operate ChatGPT. ANI sought an interim injunction to prevent OpenAI from storing, publishing, reproducing, or using its copyrighted materials.
However, in July, a single-judge bench led by Justice Amit Bansal declined to grant ANI the interim relief. Justice Bansal ruled that granting such relief would not be in the public interest and opined that OpenAI’s use of ANI’s published news for training ChatGPT does not appear to constitute copyright infringement. He further noted that an interim injunction could cause irreparable harm not only to OpenAI but also to the public interest.
ANI’s Legal Argument and Interim Arrangement
ANI has appealed the single-judge interim decision, maintaining that OpenAI should not be allowed to exploit publicly available news content without consent or create copies for storage. Advocate Sidhant Kumar, representing ANI, argued that OpenAI had previously agreed not to scrape content from ANI’s website as an interim measure.
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“From September 11, 2024, until the order was issued, OpenAI had voluntarily refrained from downloading or scraping content from our website,” Kumar stated. The court, however, deferred any directives regarding this arrangement until OpenAI’s response is heard.
Broader Implications and Intervenor Involvement
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the Broadband India Forum, urged the court to allow the forum to be heard, citing the case’s global implications. “The single judge heard us. We need to be heard. This has global implications,” Sibal argued. The bench questioned the forum’s standing, suggesting they assist at the next hearing.
Senior Advocate Arvind Datar, also representing the Broadband India Forum, mentioned that a formal application for intervention would be filed.
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Following the issuance of the notice to OpenAI, the court scheduled the next hearing for December, where these issues will be further deliberated.
