OpenAI vs ANI: Delhi HC refuses any ex-parte order

The Delhi high court on Tuesday refused to immediately restrain OpenAI from scraping news agency ANI’s content to train ChatGPT and generate responses, saying the company must first be heard.

“We will not like to pass any order ex parte without hearing the other side,” a division bench of justices Avneesh Jhingan and Manmeet PS Arora told ANI’s lawyer, Siddhant Kumar.

The court was hearing ANI’s appeal against a July 24 order of a single judge, who dismissed the agency’s plea seeking to restrain OpenAI from using its content to train ChatGPT. The judge held that OpenAI’s use of such material falls within the statutory exception of “fair dealing” under Indian copyright law.

ANI’s lawyer Kumar told the court that from September 2024 until July 24, OpenAI had undertaken not to scrape content from the agency’s website. The lawyer urged the court to direct OpenAI to continue with the same arrangement.

The division bench, however, issued notice in ANI’s appeal and fixed December 5 as the next date of hearing.

In its appeal, ANI argued that the injunction had been denied without adequately considering OpenAI’s alleged admission that it had scraped, stored and commercially exploited the agency’s work.

The news agency contended that these acts infringed its exclusive rights under the Copyright Act, including the rights to store, reproduce, adapt and translate its original works.

ANI further argued that, despite finding infringement, the single judge’s ruling had broadened the scope of the fair-dealing exception for private use and research to effectively permit the commercial exploitation of its copyrighted work.