MDL Docket Sought for OpenAI Copyright Infringement Actions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has been asked to create an MDL docket 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 a Dec. 6 motion, OpenAI argues that the eight pending class actions all arise from the same allegations and that centralization in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California “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 …