KBS, MBC, and SBS File for Damages... Zeroing In on Unauthorized ChatGPT Training
North American Lawsuits Underway by NYT and Canadian Media... "Condemning Commercial Monopolization"
OpenAI Asserts Its "Fair Use" Argument... Proving Concrete Harm Is Key
The three terrestrial broadcasters KBS, MBC, and SBS have filed a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT. This is the first time that a Korean broadcaster has directly sought to hold a global AI company legally liable.
According to the Korea Broadcasters Association on the 23rd, the three terrestrial broadcasters filed a lawsuit against OpenAI with the Seoul Central District Court on that day, seeking an injunction to stop copyright infringement and claiming damages. They argue that, in the process of advancing ChatGPT, a commercial generative AI, OpenAI massively scraped and used their core assets, news content, without authorization for training. Through this lawsuit, they intend to secure appropriate compensation for the infringement of their intellectual property rights.
The Korea Broadcasters Association issued a statement the same day, pointing out that "OpenAI has signed paid license agreements with foreign media outlets, yet has completely refused to negotiate with the three broadcasters and is adhering to a discriminatory copyright policy." It went on to say, "The act of global big tech companies unilaterally exploiting the intellectual assets of foreign media and appropriating them for their own commercial gain can never be justified as innovation," and declared, "By the three broadcasters breaking through the litigation limits that individual creators cannot shoulder, we will establish a fair compensation system and safeguard Korea's data sovereignty."
This decision is exactly in line with the broader global trend in the media industry to punish unauthorized copyright infringement by AI companies. In North America, major media outlets have already joined forces to drive OpenAI to the brink.
The New York Times, the largest daily newspaper in the United States, fired the opening shot of the global legal battle in December 2023 by filing a copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft. Claiming that ChatGPT had copied and learned from its articles without permission, it demanded not only monetary damages but also the complete destruction of AI models trained on its content. In April the following year, Alden Global Capital, which owns eight major newspapers including the Chicago Tribune and The Denver Post, joined the legal battle, asserting that OpenAI had stolen millions of its articles to build its business.
The Canadian media industry responded with a nationwide alliance. In November 2024, five outlets, including the public broadcaster CBC, the Toronto Star, and The Globe and Mail, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI in an Ontario court. OpenAI tried to move jurisdiction to the United States. However, at the end of last year, the Canadian court firmly rejected this attempt, lending support to the defense of domestic media’s data sovereignty.
This does not mean that OpenAI has alienated every media outlet in the world. It pays astronomical sums to selected key outlets to sign paid license agreements. In May 2024, News Corporation, which owns The Wall Street Journal and other outlets, signed a multiyear content supply deal with OpenAI worth 250 million dollars. Major media organizations in North America and Europe, including the Associated Press in the United States, Axel Springer in Germany, Le Monde in France, and the Financial Times in the United Kingdom, have also successively joined hands with OpenAI and secured fair compensation.
Sam Altman, CEO and founder of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, attended the Kakao Media Day held on the 4th at the Plaza Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, and is speaking with Jung Sina, CEO of Kakao. Photo by Kang Jinhyung
That said, it is far from guaranteed that media outlets will prevail in court. In November 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed a lawsuit filed by the progressive outlets The Raw Story and Alternet. The two outlets had alleged in their complaint that OpenAI, in training ChatGPT, had deliberately removed "copyright management information (CMI)" such as the original authors' names and copyright notices from their articles, thereby violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
However, the court found that the plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate specific and concrete harm. It drew a clear line, ruling that the mere fact that copyright labels were stripped in the course of AI data ingestion was not enough to recognize direct financial loss to the media outlets. The court ordered them to present clear evidence that ChatGPT had reproduced the original articles verbatim to the public and thereby siphoned off the outlets' readers and revenue. The three terrestrial broadcasters will likewise have to clear this strict threshold of proving damages if they are to overcome big tech’s "fair use" argument.
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