Judge Lets Authors Sue OpenAI Over Alleged Book Copying

Judge Sidney H. Stein Lets Authors Sue OpenAI Over Alleged Book Copying

Written by Aaron S.,

Editor-In-Chief

Last Updated: October 29, 2025

Key Takeaways

A federal judge ruled that authors can move forward with claims that OpenAI copied their books without permission;
OpenAI's attempt to dismiss the book downloading claim was rejected, as earlier filings had already outlined the issue;
The lawsuit now focuses on seven OpenAI models, with newer or unreleased versions removed from the case.

Stop overpaying - start transferring money with Ogvio. Join the waitlist & grab early Rewards NOW! 🎁

BITDEGREE IN YOUR SOCIAL FEED

A federal judge has decided that a group of authors can advance their claim that OpenAI copied their books without permission.

On October 27, Judge Sidney H. Stein rejected OpenAI’s attempt to remove a key part of the authors’ complaint.

OpenAI had argued that the claim about downloading books was a new legal argument that should not be allowed at this stage.

Proof of Work vs Proof of Stake: Which is Better? (ANIMATED)

Did you know?

Want to get smarter & wealthier with crypto?

Subscribe - We publish new crypto explainer videos every week!

However, the judge stated that earlier filings already included enough detail about the issue.

According to Judge Stein, lawsuits do not need to be tied to a specific legal explanation as long as the facts are presented. He said the authors had stated that they believed OpenAI copied their books in violation of copyright laws.

While the judge allowed the case to proceed on the main issue of downloading books, he agreed to limit the scope of the lawsuit in other areas. He removed mentions of future or unreleased models, such as GPT-4V, GPT-4.5, and GPT-5.

The case will focus only on seven specific versions of OpenAI’s language models, from GPT-3 to GPT-4o Mini.

This legal action is one of several brought by authors, including David Baldacci and Michael Chabon. They claimed that OpenAI used their written work to train its artificial intelligence (AI) systems without their approval or compensation.

Recently, a UK barrister used AI tools to help write appeal documents, which led to the inclusion of false or unrelated legal cases. What did Judge Mark Blundell say? Read the full story.