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On October 30, 2026, the Wikimedia Foundation issued a statement regarding the AI copyright case of The New York Times v. OpenAI and Microsoft. Its general counsel, Stephen LaPorte, said that if the court does not apply the fair use doctrine prudently, it could threaten the sustainability of free knowledge and inhibit the development of open-source technology. Wikimedia argues that using copyrighted works without permission for pre-training large language models may qualify as fair use if the model's output differs from the original text; however, when chatbots directly output article content and replace readers' access to the original works, AI companies should comply with licensing requirements. Wikimedia also pointed out that models reproduce Wikipedia text published under open licenses but do not necessarily comply with conditions such as attribution and share-alike, and it is concerned that if the court broadly rules that AI training is entirely unrestricted, it could greenlight disregard for licenses. CEO Bernadette Meehan said that expanding access to knowledge through AI is an important goal, but the contributors and communities that make reliable knowledge possible must be respected.
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Oct 30
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Wikimedia proposes a compromise position in AI copyright case: training may constitute fair use, but reproducing original text should require authorization
Wikimedia has proposed a compromise position in the AI copyright lawsuit, arguing that using copyrighted works without permission for large language model pre-training may qualify as fair use if the model's output differs from the original text, but that when chatbots directly output article content and replace readers' access to the original works, AI companies should comply with licensing requirements. Wikimedia points out that models reproduce Wikipedia text published under open licenses but do not necessarily comply with conditions such as attribution and share-alike, and it worries that if courts broadly rule that AI training is entirely unrestricted, this could open the door to ignoring licenses. The backdrop to this position is that The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in 2023 for scraping large numbers of news articles without permission to train AI systems, with the two companies arguing that such training constitutes fair use.
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Unite.AI
Wikimedia Foundation seeks to file amicus brief in OpenAI copyright case
The Wikimedia Foundation filed a motion on October 29, 2026, with Judge Sidney H. Stein seeking to submit an amicus curiae brief in the OpenAI copyright case; the brief's main text runs 5,831 words and states that it does not take sides with either party. The brief argues that pretraining of ChatGPT's general-purpose large language models constitutes fair use, but that its RAG feature's reproduction and use of content does not constitute fair use and should comply with license terms such as Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0. The Foundation said that if the training stage is not recognized as fair use, AI development may be left only to the best-funded large companies, while recognizing fair use across the board would prompt publishers to lock more information behind walls.
The Verge AI
Wikimedia weighs in on OpenAI and New York Times copyright case: an unfavorable ruling could threaten the open web
The Wikimedia Foundation has weighed in on the copyright lawsuit between OpenAI and the New York Times. General Counsel Stephen LaPorte said that if a ruling applies the fair use doctrine without careful consideration, it could threaten the sustainability of free knowledge and stifle the development of open-source technology. Wikimedia believes AI companies should comply with licensing requirements: using Wikipedia content requires attribution under the Creative Commons license, and any adapted works must carry the same license. CEO Bernadette Meehan said that expanding access to knowledge through AI is an important goal, but it must respect the contributors and communities that make reliable knowledge possible.
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