Korean broadcasters sue OpenAI for unauthorized news content use in ChatGPT training
South Korea's three major terrestrial broadcasters—KBS, MBC, and SBS—filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI on February 23, 2026, alleging that ChatGPT was trained on their news content without authorization or license agreements. The broadcasters argue OpenAI obtained licenses from other global news organizations while refusing to negotiate with them, and seek damages and cessation of the unauthorized use.
What happened
On February 23, 2026, KBS, MBC, and SBS filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that ChatGPT was trained on their news content without authorization.
The Korean Broadcasting Association stated that OpenAI used large amounts of the broadcasters' news content without permission and exposed it in the service, while refusing to negotiate licensing agreements with the three broadcasters despite holding such agreements with other global news organizations including News Corporation.
Reported impact
The broadcasters characterize the unauthorized use as infringement of their core assets and accumulated intellectual property, which they describe as a data sovereignty issue for South Korea.
The broadcasters state that OpenAI obtains astronomical profits from ChatGPT while maintaining discriminatory copyright policies by refusing to license content from the Korean broadcasters.
Index analysis
The lawsuit represents the first legal action by the three broadcasters against a global AI company for copyright infringement related to generative AI training.
Governance controls
The broadcasters stated they filed the lawsuit to establish a legitimate compensation system for the use of content in AI development and to protect the rights of domestic creators and copyright holders against global technology companies.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.