Calif. Judge Denies Plaintiffs' Motion to Enjoin OpenAI From Defending N.Y. Case

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin for Northern California in San Francisco denied plaintiffs’ motion to enjoin OpenAI from defending an Authors Guild copyright infringement action against them in the Southern District Court of New York (see 2402230065), said her Friday order (docket 3:23-cv-03223). On Feb. 8, three weeks after the SDNY defendants stated their intent not to transfer those cases to California, plaintiffs filed the motion asking the Northern California court to enjoin OpenAI from proceeding in subsequently filed actions, including those brought by Authors Guild, Sancton and The New York Times Co. Plaintiffs Paul Tremblay et al brought claims against various OpenAI entities in the Northern District of California; on Sept. 19, the Authors Guild sued OpenAI in New York district court on similar allegations. On Feb. 16, Martinez-Olguin signed an order consolidating Tremblay v. OpenAI Inc. et al, Sarah Silverman et al v. OpenAI and Michael Chabon et al v. OpenAI after parties agreed consolidation of the actions would advance the just and efficient progress of the litigation. The actions assert the defendants violated the plaintiffs’ rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by removing copyright management information (CMI) from plaintiffs’ infringed works and redistributing those works via ChatGPT without CMI or with false CMI. Plaintiffs in In re: OpenAI ChatGPT Litigation are due to file a consolidated complaint by March 13. The judge’s Friday order said plaintiffs have “pointed to no authority allowing the court to enjoin OpenAI from defending against litigation in a second district court case." Though plaintiffs cited a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals case holding that a district court with jurisdiction over all parties “may enjoin later filed actions,” the plaintiffs “fail to address how the requested injunction would work on a practical level, as the requested injunction would permit the plaintiffs in the Authors Guild Action to continue prosecuting their case while OpenAI would be unable to defend the action,” said Martinez-Olguin. She also denied as moot their motion to shorten time to hear the motion.