US government backs OpenAI in New York Times copyright lawsuit

Sep 2, 2026

The Trump administration has intervened in The New York Times' landmark 2023 copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, filing a statement of interest in Manhattan federal court. The Justice Department argues that training large language models on copyrighted text constitutes fair use and is vital to U.S. national security and global AI leadership. Meanwhile, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urged G20 nations to adopt similar fair-use frameworks to protect both artists and technological innovation.

Trump administration OpenAI legal brief

▪The 20-page brief filed by the U.S. government represents the first time the administration has intervened in the wave of copyright lawsuits over artificial intelligence training
▪The Trump administration's brief supporting OpenAI has advisory rather than legal weight in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
▪The Trump administration filed a statement of interest in Manhattan federal court on September 1, 2026, supporting OpenAI in its copyright dispute with The New York Times
▪U.S. Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward stated on X that the administration would not let the nation be at a disadvantage relative to foreign adversaries based on an incorrect understanding of copyright law

AI training fair use doctrine

▪U.S. attorneys wrote in the brief that constraining large language model development under a misunderstanding of fair use would thwart creative and scientific progress while hindering American prosperity
▪The U.S. government argued in its brief that training large language models on copyrighted text is extraordinarily transformative and generally constitutes fair use
▪In a 2025 decision, Judge William Alsup ruled that Anthropic could legally train its models on lawfully purchased books but ordered a $1.5 billion settlement for using pirated shadow libraries

New York Times copyright lawsuit

▪The New York Times entered into a licensing deal with Amazon in 2025 to allow its editorial content to appear in Amazon's generative artificial intelligence tools
▪The New York Times seeks billions of dollars in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft in the December 2023 copyright lawsuit
▪The New York Times filed its copyright lawsuit in December 2023, alleging that OpenAI and Microsoft unlawfully trained artificial intelligence systems on millions of its articles

G20 AI governance framework

▪U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urged G20 officials at a meeting in North Carolina on September 2, 2026, to embrace fair use and allow artificial intelligence companies to train models on creators' work
▪Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown, Palantir's Alex Karp, and OpenAI's Sam Altman were scheduled to address the G20 Innovation Ministerial summit in North Carolina on September 2, 2026
▪Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang urged G20 officials at the September 2, 2026, summit to avoid writing artificial intelligence regulations focused on theoretical harms

AI industry national security interest

▪The U.S. Justice Department asserted that the success and global leadership of America's artificial intelligence industry is an important national security interest
▪The U.S. government's brief referenced an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in 2025 emphasizing the critical need for the United States to retain global leadership in artificial intelligence