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Wikimedia, publishers and conservative groups file briefs in the New York Times case against OpenAI

A wave of amicus briefs landed on Wednesday and Thursday in the consolidated copyright case against OpenAI before Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan, which bundles 12 suits. The Wikimedia Foundation, backing neither side, argues that pre-training is likely fair use but retrieval-augmented generation, where a model fetches and uses a work at answer time, likely is not. A coalition including the Article III Project warned that a broad fair-use ruling would make distillation easier for Chinese firms.

The Justice Department sided with OpenAI on training in September. The right is now split against the administration, and Wikimedia's line between training and retrieval is the distinction most likely to shape a ruling. SourcesBC

Sources

• BConservative groups warn letting AI giants 'recklessly crawl the internet' would jeopardize news outlets (NY Post via Yahoo)yahoo.com
• CWikimedia Foundation Seeks to File Amicus Brief in OpenAI Copyright Case (Unite.AI)unite.ai

This story ran in the Morning Brief of October 30th 2026.