 |
Photo courtesy of Yonhap News |
[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] South Korea’s three major terrestrial broadcasters—KBS, MBC, and SBS—filed a lawsuit on Sunday against OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, seeking an injunction to halt alleged copyright infringement and damages.
The Korea Broadcasters Association said the broadcasters filed the suit with the Seoul Central District Court, claiming that large volumes of news content were used without authorization to train ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence service developed and commercially operated by OpenAI.
The association added that OpenAI has exposed broadcasters’ news content—described as their core assets and the product of their journalistic efforts—through its services, and that the lawsuit seeks to hold the company legally accountable for intellectual property rights infringement.
The broadcasters framed the lawsuit as an issue of data sovereignty. “It cannot be justified in the name of innovation for global big-tech companies, armed with massive capital and advanced technology, to use without permission the knowledge assets that foreign media organizations have accumulated over decades and convert them into commercial gains,” the association said. It emphasized that the rights of creators and copyright holders must be protected and fairly compensated by both domestic and global AI companies.
The association further argued that OpenAI is generating enormous profits from its GPT services and has entered into paid licensing agreements with major global media groups, including News Corporation, for generative AI development and operations, while refusing to negotiate with Korea’s terrestrial broadcasters and maintaining what it called a discriminatory copyright policy.
According to the association, this marks the first lawsuit filed by Korea’s terrestrial broadcasters against a global AI company. In January last year, the broadcasters filed a separate damages lawsuit against Naver, alleging that its generative AI service HyperCLOVA X had unlawfully used their news content for training, in violation of copyright and unfair competition laws.
Alphabiz Reporter Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
