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TechTrump administration backs OpenAI's fair-use argument in copyright fight with NYT
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The Trump administration has formally filed a legal document supporting OpenAI's core fair-use argument in its copyright dispute with The New York Times. The filing includes several conclusive statements asserting that training AI models on copyrighted material does not violate copyright laws. It argues that using copyrighted texts to train large language models (LLMs) is 'transformative—spectacularly so' and that the fourth fair-use factor supports OpenAI's position. The administration warns that narrowing fair-use doctrine would hamper 'the Progress of Science and useful Arts' and threaten national security by giving a competitive advantage to foreign adversaries. The document explicitly rejects the New York Times' attempt to exclude LLM training from fair-use protections, stating that imposing broad copyright liability rendering AI model training impermissible without licensing would be 'problematic—and legally incorrect.'
Source report
The Trump administration has formally aligned the U.S. government with OpenAI's core fair-use defense in its ongoing copyright battle with The New York Times.
In a filed document, the administration made several definitive statements supporting OpenAI's position:
- On copyright infringement: "The 'training of AI models on copyrighted material,' in and of itself, 'does not violate copyright laws.'"
- On legal precedent: "For all these reasons, the United States has a strong interest in this Court rejecting any argument that training LLMs on copyrighted texts violates copyright law."
- On fair use: "The fourth fair use factor … supports the conclusion that OpenAI's model training using New York Times articles is fair use."
- On transformative use: "The copying of protected text articles as part of training an LLM is a use of a different kind or character that is 'transformative—spectacularly so.'"
- On the nature of the technology: "In sum, the use of copies to train LLMs is extraordinarily transformative."
National Security Implications
The administration warned that restrictive copyright rules could harm U.S. competitiveness:
"Rules of law that make it significantly more difficult to develop a robust AI industry in the United States therefore threaten national security and give a competitive advantage to foreign adversaries who are not so encumbered."
Criticism of The New York Times' Position
The filing also took aim at the newspaper's legal strategy:
"In this litigation, the New York Times seeks to narrow fair-use doctrine to exclude the training of OpenAI's large language models (LLMs). That result would be inconsistent with basic copyright law principles and severely hamper 'the Progress of Science and useful Arts.'"
Caution Against Broad Liability
While supporting OpenAI, the administration also cautioned against overreach:
"But it would be problematic—and legally incorrect—to impose broad copyright liability that would generally render training of AI models impermissible without licensing."
Source
rohanpaul_aiNeutral / independent
Part of this Story
U.S. DOJ backs OpenAI, argues AI training on copyrighted text is fair use in New York Times lawsuit