Thomson Reuters Wins Copyright Battle Over AI Fair Use
Thomson Reuters has secured a legal victory in a copyright case involving artificial intelligence (AI). The media and technology company successfully defended its claim against Ross Intelligence, a defunct legal research firm, in a lawsuit filed in 2020.
Ross Intelligence was accused of using materials from Thomson Reuters' Westlaw platform to train an AI model without permission. Judge Stephanos Bibas of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Ross Intelligence's use of the content was not "fair use" under U.S. copyright law.
"Fair use" allows limited uses of copyrighted materials for purposes such as education, research, or creative transformation. However, the court determined that Ross Intelligence's use of Thomson Reuters' content did not meet these criteria.
Thomson Reuters' victory is significant amidst a surge of lawsuits by creators over the use of their works in AI models. OpenAI and Microsoft have faced copyright infringement claims from authors such as John Grisham and George R. R. Martin, while media outlets including The New York Times have also filed lawsuits.
The outcome of this case sets a precedent for the interpretation of fair use in AI-related copyright matters, and will likely shape future legal battles over the use of human-generated content to train AI models.