The New York Times, the Daily News and other publishers accuse OpenAI and Microsoft of copying millions of articles to build ChatGPT, in the lead case of the consolidated OpenAI copyright MDL. With statutory damages potentially in the billions, the case has erupted into a sanctions fight over whether OpenAI concealed its ability to search its own training data.
LATEST DEVELOPMENT · SEP 17, 2026
Summary judgment briefing opened on September 4, 2026, with the Times, OpenAI and Microsoft each moving before Judge Stein. The Times argues the defendants copied its works at scale to build commercial substitutes and OpenAI answers that existing fair-use precedent permits the training. Responses are due October 5, and unchallenged portions of the sealed briefs must be publicly re-filed by September 17. Days earlier, on August 31, Judge Stein ordered the Times to show cause by September 11 why its own case should not be stayed pending resolution of summary judgment in the other active MDL cases, with the defendants’ response due September 18, and on September 1 the Department of Justice filed a statement of interest arguing that training large language models on copyrighted text is generally fair use and that restricting it would threaten U.S. competitiveness and national security.
BACKGROUND
The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in December 2023, alleging that millions of Times articles were copied to train the GPT models behind ChatGPT and Copilot and that the products reproduce and closely mimic its journalism, including paywalled content. Judge Sidney H. Stein largely denied dismissal in March 2025, preserving the core direct and contributory infringement claims while dismissing DMCA theories, and in April 2025 the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation centralized the news-publisher and author actions before Judge Stein as In re OpenAI, Inc. Copyright Infringement Litigation (MDL No. 3143).
The MDL is in heavy discovery. In November 2025, Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang ordered OpenAI to produce a sample of 20 million de-identified ChatGPT conversation logs, and Judge Stein affirmed that order on January 5, 2026 over OpenAI’s user-privacy objections. On July 9, 2026, the Times, the Daily News and fifteen other media plaintiffs moved for sanctions, alleging that OpenAI falsely told the court it could not search its training corpora and output logs for plaintiffs’ works while internally running exactly such searches, and that it deleted billions of ChatGPT outputs. They seek adverse findings, exclusion of the log sample and fees. Bellwether selection is expected in late 2026.
TIMELINE
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SEP 17, 2026FILINGUnsealed summary judgment filings reveal internal Microsoft and OpenAI statements on scraping news contentPursuant to the sealing order, unredacted portions of the parties’ summary judgment briefs were unsealed and publicly filed. The filings included a 2023 internal Microsoft memo in which an executive called AI training on scraped content “an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions” and disclosed that OpenAI’s training datasets contained over 91,692 copies of works from the Times, Daily News, and Center for Investigative Reporting.Microsoft exec called AI scraping 'the largest theft of labor in human history,' new unredacted filings revealMicrosoft exec called AI scraping 'the largest theft of labor in human history,' new unredacted filings revealOpenAI and Microsoft Internal Documents Describe News as an Unpriced Input — and Litigation Is Filling the Gap
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SEP 4, 2026FILINGParties file cross-motions for summary judgmentOpenAI, Microsoft and a group of five news organizations each moved for summary judgment in the consolidated MDL before Judge Stein. The Times argued the defendants copied its works at scale to build commercial substitutes, while OpenAI argued existing copyright precedent permits the training. Judge Stein issued a stipulated sealing order governing the briefing.
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SEP 1, 2026FILINGDOJ files Statement of Interest backing OpenAI’s fair use defenseThe U.S. Department of Justice filed a 20-page brief in the MDL arguing that training large language models on copyrighted works is generally fair use and that restricting AI training would harm U.S. scientific progress, economic competitiveness and national security. It was reportedly the first time the U.S. government took a position in AI copyright litigation.
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AUG 31, 2026PROCEDURALJudge Stein orders the Times to show cause why its case should not be stayed pending summary judgment in other MDL casesThe order set a September 11 deadline for the Times and September 18 for the defendants’ response.
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AUG 14, 2026FILINGOpenAI opposes news plaintiffs’ sanctions motionOpenAI urged the court to reject sanctions sought by the New York Times and other news organizations, arguing it did not violate discovery obligations regarding the 20-million-chat log sample.
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JUL 9, 2026OTHEROpenAI publicly denies sanctions allegationsResponding to the publishers’ sanctions motion, OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri denied the allegations, saying the Times was making ‘blatantly false allegations’ as its case weakened, and that OpenAI would continue defending user privacy and fair use principles.
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JUL 9, 2026FILINGNews plaintiffs move for sanctions against OpenAISeventeen media plaintiffs allege OpenAI concealed its ability to search training data and output logs and deleted billions of ChatGPT outputs. They seek adverse findings and fees.
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JAN 5, 2026PROCEDURALJudge Stein affirms the 20-million-log orderUser-privacy objections are overruled. De-identification and the protective order are deemed sufficient safeguards.
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NOV 7, 2025PROCEDURALMagistrate Judge Wang orders production of 20 million ChatGPT logsThe court rejects OpenAI’s proposal to run targeted keyword searches and produce only conversations implicating plaintiffs’ works.
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APR 3, 2025PROCEDURALJPML centralizes the litigation as MDL No. 3143Twelve news-publisher and author actions against OpenAI and Microsoft are consolidated before Judge Stein in the S.D.N.Y. More followed.
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MAR 26, 2025PROCEDURALJudge Stein largely denies motions to dismissCore direct and contributory copyright claims proceed. DMCA claims are dismissed. The full opinion issued April 4, 2025.
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DEC 27, 2023FILINGNew York Times sues OpenAI and MicrosoftThe Times alleges millions of its articles were used without authorization to train GPT models and that ChatGPT reproduces its journalism.