Technology
Trump administration backs AI firms in copyright battle, arguing model training is fair use
The Department of Justice filed an advisory brief supporting OpenAI against The New York Times, contrasting with prior Copyright Office guidance.
The short version
- The Department of Justice filed an advisory brief urging a federal judge to rule for OpenAI in a copyright lawsuit brought by The New York Times.
- The administration argued that training artificial intelligence models on copyrighted material constitutes transformative fair use and does not require licensing fees.
- The position directly opposes copyright infringement lawsuits filed across the creative sector, including major music label suits against AI developers.
- It remains uncertain how federal courts will rule on the fair use defense in the ongoing copyright litigation.
Key facts
- The Department of Justice submitted an advisory brief on September 1 urging a federal judge to rule in favor of OpenAI in its lawsuit with The New York Times.[Billboard]
- The DOJ argued that AI training represents an extraordinarily transformative use that does not harm the market for original works and falls under fair use protection.[Billboard]
- The administration's stance conflicts with legal actions brought by record labels, authors, and studios against AI companies such as Anthropic and Suno.[Billboard]
- The filing contradicts a previous report from the federal Copyright Office, which concluded that ingesting vast volumes of existing works to generate competing content exceeds fair use limits.[Billboard]
- The Trump administration dismissed both the Librarian of Congress and the Register of Copyrights shortly after the Copyright Office published its report.[Billboard]
What remains uncertain
- How federal judges will interpret fair use doctrine in pending copyright cases against OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI developers remains undetermined.[Billboard]