Canadian News Organisations Demand Action Against OpenAI’s Content Use

A coalition of Canadian news organisations, including CBC, Toronto Star, and The Globe and Mail, has sued OpenAI, accusing it of using copyrighted articles without authorisation to train ChatGPT.

The lawsuit, reportedly a first in Canada, claims OpenAI ignored copyright safeguards and paywalls to scrape content, seeking punitive damages of 20,000 Canadian dollars per article, which could total billions. The coalition also demands profit-sharing and a ban on future use of their content. OpenAI defends its practices as grounded in fair use and offers publishers an opt-out option. This case follows similar actions in the U.S., where media organisations have raised concerns about copyright breaches by AI developers.