On October 27, 2025, Judge Sidney H. Stein of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied OpenAI’s motion to dismiss authors’ output-based copyright infringement claims in In re OpenAI, Inc. Copyright Infringement Litigation.
The court held that the consolidated complaint plausibly alleges both actual copying and substantial similarity, at least to some ChatGPT outputs. This ruling contributed to the ongoing legal debate over whether AI-generated content such as summaries, outlines, or stories can infringe copyrights when they draw heavily from protected elements of published works.
Background
The case consolidates multiple lawsuits brought by authors and copyright holders of fiction and non-fiction works, including George R.R. Martin, the well-known author of the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Plaintiffs allege that OpenAI and its financial backer, Microsoft, infringed their copyrights by:
- Downloading and reproducing their works,
- Using those works as training data for GPT-based large language models, and
- Generating outputs that allegedly incorporate protected expression or create derivative works.
OpenAI sought dismissal of the “output-based infringement” claims, arguing plaintiffs failed to plead substantial similarity and failed to provide concrete examples of infringing outputs in the complaint itself.
The Court’s Analysis
Actual Copying
The court found the complaint “squarely alleged that OpenAI had access to plaintiffs’ works and that ChatGPT’s allegedly infringing outputs are based on plaintiffs’ works.” That is enough to plausibly allege actual copying at the pleadings stage.
Substantial similarity
Applying the “more discerning observer” test—which focuses on similarities in protectable expression such as plot, characters, sequence, and setting the court highlighted two examples involving George R.R. Martin’s works:
- A multi-section summary of A Game of Thrones that recounted key character arcs, setting details, and major plot events; and
- An outline for an alternative sequel using the same world, characters, and thematic structure as A Song of Ice and Fire.
Judge Stein concluded that a reasonable jury could find these outputs substantially similar to the original works, based on “the output’s incorporation of such copyrightable elements” of the work.
Because some outputs plausibly met the substantial similarity threshold, the claim survived the motion to dismiss.
Fair Use Reserved
The court explicitly declined to reach fair use, noting that it is a fact-intensive inquiry inappropriate for resolution on a motion to dismiss.
Moving Forward
This case will continue to shape how courts approach copyright claims involving generative AI, especially where outputs closely track expressive content from protected works. As AI systems become more sophisticated, courts will increasingly confront the boundary between transformative use and unlicensed reproduction.