The Delhi High Court has refused to grant an interim injunction to ANI Media Pvt. Ltd. in its copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI over the use of ANI’s news content to train large language models. In a ruling by Justice Amit Bansal, the court holds that ANI has not established, at this stage, a prima facie case showing that OpenAI’s training involved copying or reproduction of ANI’s original literary works in ways that would constitute infringement. The court also says the risk of “irreparable injury” would extend beyond OpenAI to the public at large if an interim order were issued.
The judge notes that OpenAI’s storage and use of ANI’s content for training falls within the scope of “fair dealing,” referencing Section 52(1)(a) of India’s Copyright Act, 1957, which covers certain research-related uses. The court further observes that the outputs generated by ChatGPT are not substantially similar to ANI’s original works, supporting the view that interim relief is not warranted.
ANI had alleged unauthorized use of its copyrighted works for training and raised concerns about potential inaccuracies or misuse. OpenAI denied wrongdoing and argued that it had not improperly accessed copyrighted material.
