Beckmann
Legal

NYT publisher group calls for court sanctions against OpenAI

Times, Daily News and other US publishers accuse OpenAI of concealing evidence in the copyright dispute and demand court sanctions.

By Published on

3 min read
Abstract editorial illustration: an empty courtroom with a judge's bench and law books, behind it a floating screen with dissolving newspaper text and binary code as a symbol for the AI copyright dispute. Image generated with GPT Image 2
Abstract editorial illustration: an empty courtroom with a judge's bench and law books, behind it a floating screen with dissolving newspaper text and binary code as a symbol for the AI copyright dispute.

TL;DR Too Long; Didn’t read

The New York Times, the New York Daily News, and other US media outlets filed a motion for sanctions against OpenAI in a federal court in Manhattan on July 9, 2026. They accuse the company in the copyright dispute over ChatGPT training data of having denied for years the existence of search functions for protected press content and of having deleted chat logs. OpenAI denies the allegations and accuses the plaintiffs of endangering the privacy of users with the motion. The responsible magistrate judge must first decide on the motion in the case New York Times Company v. Microsoft Corporation (No. 1:23-cv-11195, S.D.N.Y.).

Key takeaways

  • NYT, NY Daily News and other publishers have filed a motion for sanctions against OpenAI in a New York federal court.
  • The plaintiffs accuse OpenAI of having falsely claimed for about two years that ChatGPT logs could not be specifically searched for protected material.
  • An employee statement is said to prove that OpenAI had already conducted such searches internally before the lawsuit was filed in December 2023.
  • The court had previously instructed OpenAI to preserve chat output logs for evidence instead of deleting them.
  • OpenAI denies the allegations and accuses the plaintiffs of endangering the privacy of uninvolved users with the demand.
  • The case (No. 1:23-cv-11195, S.D.N.Y.) is one of the central AI copyright cases in the US and has been ongoing since December 2023.

On July 9, 2026, a group of U.S. media companies led by the New York Times filed a motion for sanctions against OpenAI in a federal court in Manhattan. Among the plaintiffs is the New York Daily News. As Reuters reports, the publishers accuse OpenAI of systematically obstructing the discovery process in the ongoing copyright dispute over the training data of ChatGPT.

The Allegation: Obscured Search Functions and Deleted Logs

The core of the motion is the claim that OpenAI has stated for about two years that the company could not specifically search its systems for copyrighted material belonging to the plaintiffs. A later statement by an OpenAI employee during a deposition contradicts this: According to the plaintiffs, OpenAI had already conducted relevant searches internally before the first lawsuit was filed in December 2023. Additionally, billions of ChatGPT conversations are said to have been deleted or made untraceable – a figure that comes from the plaintiffs’ filing and has not been confirmed by the court.

According to Bloomberg Law, the filing describes OpenAI’s behavior as “a conscious and systematic attempt to obstruct the discovery process.” Times attorney Ian Crosby is quoted by Reuters as saying that OpenAI “lied to The Times, the public, and the court.”

The plaintiffs are asking the court not only for reimbursement of legal fees but also for a clear judicial determination that the ChatGPT logs demonstrate the misuse of their own content – a kind of presumption of evidence against OpenAI.

What OpenAI Responds

According to Al Jazeera, an OpenAI spokesperson sharply rejects the allegations, calling them “clearly false accusations.” From OpenAI’s perspective, the Times’ position is increasingly weakening, which is why the plaintiffs were recently forced to drop parts of their original complaint in an amended filing. With the motion for sanctions, the publishers are instead attempting to interfere with the privacy of users who have nothing to do with the actual proceedings.

The case The New York Times Company v. Microsoft Corporation (Case No. 1:23-cv-11195, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York) has been ongoing since December 2023. In addition to the Times, other publishers are involved as so-called “News Plaintiffs.” They accuse OpenAI and Microsoft of using millions of articles without a license to train ChatGPT.

The dispute over deleted logs is not new: A previous court order indicates that the court had already instructed OpenAI to preserve chat output logs for evidentiary purposes instead of routinely deleting them. The question of whether and to what extent OpenAI has complied with this order has thus been at the center of the proceedings for some time. According to media reports, the Times has now invested more than $28 million in the litigation against AI companies; this figure has also not been independently verified.

What Happens Next

The presiding magistrate judge must first decide on the motion for sanctions before the actual legal dispute over the copyright issue can continue. A sanctions ruling would not directly answer the fundamental question – whether training AI models with protected press content constitutes copyright infringement – but it could significantly shift the evidentiary situation in the further proceedings in favor of the publishers. The case is considered one of the most influential among the numerous AI copyright lawsuits currently pending in the U.S.

Frequently asked questions

What is the motion for sanctions against OpenAI about?

A group of US publishers led by the New York Times filed a motion in a federal court in Manhattan on July 9, 2026, to sanction OpenAI for alleged misconduct during the evidence collection.

What exactly does the NYT group accuse OpenAI of?

OpenAI is alleged to have denied for about two years that ChatGPT logs could be specifically searched for copyright-protected material, even though the company, according to a later employee statement, had already conducted such searches before the lawsuit was filed. Additionally, billions of conversations are said to have been deleted or made untraceable – a figure from the plaintiffs' brief that has not been confirmed by the court.

How does OpenAI respond to the allegations?

An OpenAI spokesperson rejects the allegations as inaccurate and accuses the plaintiffs of actually attacking the privacy of users who have nothing to do with the proceedings.

What is the background of the NYT lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft?

The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in December 2023 in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (No. 1:23-cv-11195). According to them, the companies used millions of articles without a license to train ChatGPT. Other publishers joined the lawsuit as so-called News Plaintiffs.

What happens next in the proceedings?

First, the responsible magistrate judge must decide on the motion for sanctions. The fundamental copyright question – whether AI training with protected press content was permissible – remains initially unaffected by this, but could be significantly influenced by a sanctions order.

#Legal
Sources

Related articles

← Back to the blog