Korean Broadcasters Sue OpenAI
South Korea's top television networks are suing OpenAI, alleging that the company used their news content to train ChatGPT without permission or compensation. The lawsuit reflects a growing global trend of publishers escalating legal and strategic battles to demand licensing fees and safeguards for their content from AI developers.
- The lawsuit was filed in the Seoul Central District Court by South Korea's three largest public broadcasters: KBS, MBC, and SBS. - The broadcasters are demanding monetary compensation and a permanent injunction to prevent OpenAI from continuing the alleged copyright infringement. - A core accusation is that OpenAI operates a "discriminatory copyright policy" by securing paid licensing deals with global publishers like the Associated Press, Axel Springer, and News Corp while refusing to negotiate similar terms with Korean media. - The Korea Broadcasters Association has framed the legal action as a matter of protecting the nation's "data sovereignty" from exploitation by global big tech firms. - This is not the broadcasters' first such action; in January 2025, the same three companies sued South Korean tech firm Naver for allegedly using their news content to train its HyperCLOVA AI model without permission. - The case is part of a larger global pattern of litigation, which includes a prominent copyright infringement lawsuit filed by The New York Times and a separate suit from eight major U.S. newspapers owned by Alden Global Capital. - South Korean copyright law does not yet explicitly address the use of copyrighted material for AI training, though an amendment to the country's AI Basic Act has been proposed to require AI companies to disclose the data used.
