Delhi High Court rules OpenAI's AI training doesn't breach ANI copyright in landmark case

ANI vs OpenAI: Delhi HC denies interim copyright relief

The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to grant an interim injunction to Asian News International (ANI) in its copyright infringement suit against OpenAI Inc, the company behind ChatGPT. While pronouncing the order, Justice Amit Bansal held that ANI had failed to establish a prima facie case warranting interim relief. The court, however, ruled in ANI's favour on the issue of territorial jurisdiction. ANI filed the suit alleging that ChatGPT reproduced its copyrighted news reports and generated inaccurate responses attributed to the news agency, causing reputational harm. OpenAI denied the allegations and argued that its use of the material was transformative and did not amount to copyright infringement, according to LiveLaw. ANI failed to establish a prima facie case: The court said, "I am of the prima facie view that OpenAI's act of storing ANI's original works falls under Section 52(1)(a) Copyright Act and therefore does not amount to infringement under Section 5." It further observed, "I am also of the prima facie view that outputs generated by ChatGPT does not amount to copyright infringement under Section 51, since outputs generated by OpenAI were not substantially similar to ANI's." Addressing ANI's allegations that ChatGPT memorized and reproduced its reports, the court said, "ANI has failed to satisfy this court that any memorization regurgitation of ANI's work has happened from responses generated by ChatGPT." Justice Bansal consequently held, "In view of discussion above, ANI has failed to make out prima facie case for grant of interim injunction." The court also considered the balance of convenience before refusing relief. It observed, "Irreparable injury would be caused not only to OpenAI but also to the public at large if an interim injunction is granted in favour of ANI". Why does this matter: The Delhi High Court's ruling is the first substantive judicial finding in India on whether an AI company can use copyrighted news content to train a large language model without first obtaining a licence. Although the court decided only the interim injunction application and the main suit will continue, its prima facie findings provide the clearest indication yet of how Indian courts may approach AI training under the Copyright Act. The case also mirrors a growing wave of litigation in the US and EU, where publishers, authors and news organizations have sued OpenAI and other AI companies, However, unlike several US cases, the Delhi High Court expressly relied on India's statutory fair dealing exception under Section 52(1)(a), holding at the interim stage that storing copyrighted works for training falls within the provision. For India's news industry, the outcome extends beyond ANI. The case has drawn interventions from the Digital News Publishers Association and the Federation of Indian Publishers. The final judgment could therefore shape the relationship between AI companies and Indian publishers, while influencing future copyright disputes involving generative AI training.

No Copyright Breach, Delhi High Court Backs OpenAI Training

The Delhi High Court on Friday ruled that OpenAI's use of copyrighted material to train its AI models does not amount to copyright infringement, rejecting an interim injunction sought by news agency ANI in its copyright lawsuit against the company. Justice Amit Bansal held that OpenAI's act of storing ANI's works for training its Large Language Models (LLMs) does not, by itself, violate copyright law. The court also found that ANI had failed to establish a prima facie case that ChatGPT had memorised or reproduced its copyrighted content in its responses. Pronouncing the order, Justice Bansal observed, "OpenAI's act of storing ANI's works does not amount to copyright infringement," adding, "ANI had failed to show that any memorization or regurgitation of ANI's work has happened from responses generated by ChatGPT.'

Indian court says OpenAI did not violate news agency ANI's copyright

BENGALURU, July 24 (Reuters) - An Indian court said on Friday that OpenAI's use of news agency ANI's content to train its ChatGPT service did not amount to copyright infringement. The remarks are the first substantive court finding in India on whether AI companies can train large language models on copyrighted news content without a licence, a question being litigated in similar suits against OpenAI in the United States and Canada. ANI sued OpenAI in the Delhi High Court in November 2024, accusing the U.S. company of using its published content without permission to train its AI models and of having its chatbot attribute fabricated stories to the news agency. ANI had failed to show that ChatGPT memorised or reproduced its news reports in responses generated for users, Justice Amit Bansal of the Delhi court said on Friday. OpenAI's storage of ANI's news articles to train the models underlying ChatGPT is protected by a fair-dealing exemption for research under a provision of India's Copyright Act and therefore does not infringe ANI's copyright, Bansal said. (Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Joe Bavier)