The Delhi High Court heard ANI’s copyright case against OpenAI, where DNPA warned that ChatGPT’s unchecked use of news content “reduces the incentive to create.” The outcome could change the future of journalism, copyright, and AI regulation in India.
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NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on August 18, 2025, heard an important case between ANI Media Pvt. Ltd. and OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.
The case is about copyright and whether artificial intelligence can freely use news content created by journalists. Many people in the Indian news industry are closely watching this case because the final decision could change how copyright law works in the age of AI.
The matter came before Justice Amit Bansal, where strong concerns were raised by the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA).
DNPA argued that if AI platforms like ChatGPT continue using news reports without permission or payment, journalism will lose its value and survival will become very difficult.
According to DNPA, “reduces the incentive to create” and directly hurts both creativity and the financial stability of media houses.
Advocate Rajshekhar Rao, speaking for DNPA, told the Court that ChatGPT is taking journalistic work without consent and without paying news organisations.
He said,
“Today we are dealing with something that says it is ChatGPT but effectively reduces my incentive to create, because whatever I do is being taken away… ChatGPT is, in fact, on a lighter note, Chaat GPT.”
Rao warned that if this continues,
“A large chunk of my population will die out, because it will no longer be viable for us to continue offering that service.”
He also added that such practices finally harm the public interest, which is exactly what copyright law is meant to safeguard.
On the other side, another party, an intervener appearing for AI-based shopping platform Zoop, supported OpenAI and ChatGPT. The intervener said that ChatGPT does not simply copy news stories word for word, but instead creates new text by combining information already available in public.
According to the counsel,
“There is neither reproduction of the whole work nor any substantial part thereof, and mere storage per se does not constitute infringement.”
The argument was that ChatGPT’s work is more like a derivative creation rather than a direct copy.
The Court recorded that intervenors were still completing their submissions. The next stages will be very crucial: OpenAI will reply with its rebuttals, and then the amicus curiae appointed by the Court, Adarsh Ramanujan and Dr. Arul George Scaria, will give their final summaries.
Earlier, ANI had accused OpenAI of copyright violation for using ANI’s news reports to train ChatGPT without proper authorisation, which, according to ANI, breaks the Copyright Act, 1957. OpenAI, however, argued that Indian courts do not have jurisdiction because OpenAI does not officially operate in India and its servers are based outside the country.
ANI had also taken preventive action in October 2024 by blocking its news website “http://www.aninews.in” from being used in any AI training.
This case has drawn wide industry participation. Apart from DNPA, the Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP) has also asked to join the hearings, as they too believe AI systems are a risk to content creators if left unregulated.
CASE TITLE:
ANI Media Pvt. Ltd. vs OpenAI OpCo LLC.
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