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AII-1001-91241
AllegedThe record is a lawsuit, complaint or accusation that has not been decided.

Ziff Davis sues OpenAI for unauthorized use of media content

Ziff Davis, which owns over 45 media brands including IGN, CNET, and PCMag, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI alleging the company used its published content to train AI models without permission. The lawsuit claims OpenAI created identical copies of articles, ignored copyright notices, and continued training despite web crawler restrictions.

26 April 2025 Β· OpenAI Β· Intellectual property and appropriation
26 April 2025

Drafted by Raidu Incident Detection, an automated system.

AII-1001-912416 sources ↓
Quick facts
Category
Intellectual property and appropriation
Country
United States
Source
Reuters
Date
26 April 2025
Drafted by
Raidu Incident Detection

What happened

Ziff Davis, owner of over 45 media brands including IGN, CNET, PCMag, and Everyday Health, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI on April 26, 2025, alleging unauthorized use of its published content to train AI models.

Ziff Davis claimed OpenAI created identical copies of articles from its publications, removed copyright information from the content, and continued training despite web crawler restrictions on its servers.

Reported impact

Ziff Davis stated it discovered hundreds of complete copies of its content in samples of OpenAI's WebText dataset and demanded destruction of any datasets or models containing its works.

Classification

Category
Intellectual property and appropriation
Industry
Media, social platforms and marketing
Country
United States
Harm status
Actual harm
Intent
Intentional
Timing
Unknown
Harm types
Economic or property
Harmed
Business
Failure modes
Training data misuse, Unauthorised scraping
Consequences
Litigation
AI systems
ChatGPT

Sources and evidence

This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.

Reuters
Publisher Ziff Davis sues OpenAI for copyright infringement
24 April 2025
Banjarmasin Post
Pengembang ChatGPT Digugat 45 Media Ternama, Dituding Tanpa Izin Pakai Konten untuk Jawab Pertanyaan - Banjarmasinpost.co.id
25 April 2025
KOMPAS.com
Induk ChatGPT Digugat Penerbit 45 Media, Diduga Melanggar Hak Cipta
25 April 2025
VOI - Waktunya Merevolusi Pemberitaan
OpenAI Digugat Pemilik Puluhan Media Atas Penyalinan Karya Tanpa Izin
25 April 2025
Digital Music News
OpenAI Sued By Ziff Davis for Copyright Infringement
25 April 2025
ameera.republika.co.id
Ziff Davis sues OpenAI for unauthorized use of media content
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