A federal judge in Delaware has made an important decision in a major AI copyright case, siding with Thomson Reuters against the legal AI company Ross Intelligence. This ruling is a key moment in the ongoing discussion about how AI systems use copyrighted material.
The lawsuit, which began in 2020, claimed that Ross Intelligence copied content from Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw database to create its own AI legal tool.
Judge Bibas dismissed Ross’s defense based on fair use, which is a common argument in copyright cases involving AI.
Judge Bibas stated that none of Ross’s defenses were valid, emphasizing that their actions were not transformative. He made a clear distinction between non-generative AI and generative AI systems.
Fair use is a part of US copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted works without permission. In this case, the judge found that two of the four factors of fair use favored Thomson Reuters, particularly regarding the purpose of Ross’s use and its negative impact on the original market.
The judge pointed out that Ross used the headnotes to create a competing legal research tool, which he deemed non-transformative.
Judge Bibas’s interpretation of fair use differs from previous rulings, focusing on the competitive nature of Ross’s actions.
This could have serious consequences for the AI industry, making it harder for companies like OpenAI and Microsoft to argue fair use in their own copyright disputes.
Legal experts believe this ruling could negatively affect generative AI companies. They suggest that much of the legal precedent these companies rely on for fair use may no longer apply.
The ruling has already affected Ross Intelligence, which closed down in 2021 due to the high costs of legal battles. In contrast, larger AI companies like OpenAI and Google are more financially capable of handling long legal disputes.
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