Hollywood's biggest players are backing New York Times' massive copyright lawsuit against OpenAI

Sam Altman and OpenAI were sued by the New York Times for copyright infringement in 2023. Getty Images Hollywood has begun wading into the NY Times’ massive copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft. On Friday night, WME filed an amicus brief in the legal case that could have far-reaching implications for how Hollywood manages its IP in the AI era. WME’s filing followed similar briefs filed by CAA, the Cate Blanchett -backed Human Consent Fund and unions SAG-AFTRA and the WGA. As Page Six Hollywood has previously reported , Ari Emanuel has no love lost for OpenAI chief exec Sam Altman . OpenAI believed that Elon Musk — whose lawsuit earlier this year against Altman and OpenAI was unsuccessful — was conniving with a group of Silicon Valley titans to hobble the AI giant. Emanuel, a longtime Musk friend, appeared in court to support Musk during the trial. Emanuel’s WME is one of the Hollywood power players that is publicly backing the Times. Bloomberg via Getty Images WME has been a leader when it comes to regulating AI, whether lobbying for the NO FAKES Act or publicly opposing OpenAI’s Sora. WME said that OpenAI’s stance that it should get carte blanche on using whatever material it wants to train its AI systems doesn’t hold legal water, despite OpenAI’s assertion that it constitutes fair use. As WME argues, there already exists a market for licensing deals — OpenAI itself has cut deals with News Corp and Disney that licenses their content and IP. The NYT lawsuit, first filed back in 2023, accused OpenAI and its backer Microsoft of copyright infringement by feeding the Times’ journalism into ChatGPT without paying the outlet for it. The Times filed for summary judgment in September and the deadline for all reply briefs is this Friday. After that, the judge overseeing the case will make a ruling or send it to a trial. If it does, it would be among the closely-watched trials in the media.