Unsealed court briefs in the authors' case against OpenAI and Microsoft allege that executives at both companies were aware that mass copying of books was infringing copyright.

"Unsealed court briefs allege OpenAI and Microsoft executives knew mass book copying was infringing" — Hacker News (best) · AI & Technology

27 Sept 2026

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What it means

Newly unsealed court filings from the 's copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft present internal communications and testimony suggesting that executives at both companies were aware that mass-copying copyrighted books to train AI models constituted copyright infringement. The documents reportedly show that OpenAI and Microsoft leadership discussed the legality of the data scraping and, in some cases, described it as 'theft' or 'illegal.'

Accuracy & sourcesGrounded

The claim is directly based on primary source documents— in the Authors Guild et al. v. OpenAI et al. litigation. Multiple news outlets (including the Wall Street Journal and the Authors Guild's own press release) quote from the filings, lending strong corroboration. While the allegations are serious, they remain allegations until adjudicated; the solidity of the claim rests on the fact that the filings exist and contain those statements.

Unsealed court briefs in the authors' case against OpenAI and Microsoft allege that executives at both companies were aware that mass copying of books was infringing copyright.

What it means

Accuracy & sourcesGrounded

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