Calif. Judge Grants Motion Relating 2 DMCA Cases Against OpenAI

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin for Northern California in San Francisico granted the plaintiffs’ motion to relate the later-filed case Silverman v. OpenAI to Tremblay v. OpenAI, said her Friday order (docket 3:23-cv-03223). The plaintiffs in both cases allege OpenAI and several of its subsidiaries created, maintained and operated ChatGPT software in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The actions assert the defendants violated the plaintiffs’ rights under the DMCA by removing copyright management information (CMI) from plaintiffs’ infringed works and redistributing those works via ChatGPT without CMI or with false CMI. Both lawsuits claim vicarious copyright infringement, unfair competition, negligence and unjust enrichment and request damages, declaratory judgment and injunctive relief.