DOJ backs OpenAI's fair-use defense in publisher AI-training lawsuit, argues Congress should set licensing rules

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest (Sept. 1, 2026) in the Southern District of New York copyright MDL brought by the New York Times, New York Daily News and Center for Investigative Reporting against OpenAI and Microsoft. The DOJ argues that training a large language model on copyrighted text is fair use because it is transformative, and that a ruling otherwise would hamper scientific progress. It also argues that forcing AI companies to license training data would let a handful of large media companies set prices only the biggest developers could afford, and that Congress — not courts — should create any licensing framework.

The statement of interest is the administration's position, not a court ruling; it does not bind the court. The case remains in discovery with a ruling not imminent.