Wikimedia Foundation Files Amicus Brief in NYT OpenAI Copyright Case

The Wikimedia Foundation has weighed in on The New York Times copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, filing an amicus brief that urges nuance in deciding whether the companies' use of published content, including for AI model training, violates copyright law. The filing supports neither an extreme restriction on fair use nor blanket permission for AI companies, instead proposing limits tied to specific uses. A summary judgment in the case is expected in the near future, and the dispute is one of more than a dozen similar cases moving through the courts.

Foundation Seeks A Third Way

The New York Times argues that companies such as OpenAI should not have free rein over its published content. OpenAI and Microsoft argue that training and deploying AI models based on published data is necessary for technological development and would fall within fair use. The Wikimedia Foundation agrees with Microsoft and OpenAI that a much more restrictive version of fair use could inhibit tech innovation. It also warns that a ruling in favor of blanket fair use could lead to a closed web where knowledge is weakened by a lack of available secondary source materials.

Two Use Cases For Fair Use

The Foundation's alternative position applies fair use to two specific use cases for AI companies. One is certain model training scenarios. The other is retrieval-augmented generation, a technique that optimizes the output of large language models by referencing authoritative knowledge bases outside of their training data. The organization does not support retrieval-augmented generation when a model regurgitates pre-existing articles without attribution. On model training, it argues that scraping copyrighted content should be considered fair use if it is used when training LLMs that are something new and different from the original sources.

Wikipedia's Role And Quote

Wikipedia is considered one of the highest-quality datasets used to train large language models. Stephen LaPorte, the Wikimedia Foundation's General Counsel, wrote that a ruling that does not apply fair use principles carefully could threaten the sustainability of free knowledge and stifle the development of open source technologies, ultimately impacting access to information for everyone in both cases. He also wrote that the court needs to understand that Wikipedia is created through a collaborative process that requires a strong foundation of open and accessible human knowledge to thrive. The filing was reported on Oct. 30, 2026.

Sources: Engadget