MDL Docket Created in N.Y. for OpenAI Copyright Infringement Actions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has created an MDL docket in New York federal court for lawsuits accusing artificial intelligence company OpenAI of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by building its large language models (LLMs) with copyrighted works.

In an April 3 order, the panel agreed with OpenAI that the 12 pending class actions arise from the same allegations and that centralization “will avoid duplicative discovery — including especially multiple redundant depositions of OpenAI’s witnesses — and inconsistent pretrial rulings on important and emerging questions of law that will inform the business and research practices …