Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster Sue OpenAI for Copyright Infringement

The publishers allege OpenAI used nearly 100,000 of their copyrighted articles to train language models without permission.

Mar. 16, 2026 at 5:38pm by Ben Kaplan

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Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging the AI company has committed 'massive copyright infringement' by scraping and using nearly 100,000 of their copyrighted online articles to train language models, including ChatGPT, without permission. The publishers claim OpenAI has violated copyright laws by generating outputs that contain 'full or partial verbatim reproductions' of their content and by using their articles in ChatGPT's retrieval augmented generation (RAG) workflow.

Why it matters

This lawsuit highlights the ongoing tension between AI companies and publishers over the use of copyrighted content for training language models. It raises questions about the legal boundaries of 'fair use' and whether using copyrighted material as training data constitutes copyright infringement, an issue that has not yet been clearly established in the courts.

The details

According to the lawsuit, Britannica and Merriam-Webster allege that OpenAI has violated copyright laws by scraping and using nearly 100,000 of their online articles to train language models like ChatGPT. The publishers claim OpenAI has generated outputs that contain 'full or partial verbatim reproductions' of their content, and that the company's use of their articles in ChatGPT's RAG workflow also violates their copyrights. Britannica also alleges that OpenAI is violating the Lanham Act, a trademark statute, by generating 'made-up hallucinations' and falsely attributing them to the publisher.

  • The lawsuit was filed on March 16, 2026.

The players

Encyclopedia Britannica

A publisher that owns the copyright to nearly 100,000 online articles, which it alleges OpenAI used to train language models without permission.

Merriam-Webster

A publisher that is owned by Encyclopedia Britannica and is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit against OpenAI.

OpenAI

The AI company that is accused of committing 'massive copyright infringement' by using Britannica and Merriam-Webster's copyrighted articles to train language models like ChatGPT.

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What’s next

The outcome of this lawsuit could have significant implications for the use of copyrighted content in AI training, potentially setting a precedent that could impact the broader tech industry.

The takeaway

This case highlights the ongoing legal battles between AI companies and publishers over the use of copyrighted content, underscoring the need for clearer guidelines and regulations around the fair use of such material for training language models.