The AI Rights Project Files Amicus Brief in OpenAI Copyright MDL
News related to:The AI Rights Project · 2 min read
The AI Rights Project has filed a motion for leave to submit an amicus brief in the OpenAI copyright multidistrict litigation (MDL). The filing seeks to examine whether fair use presupposes human creative judgment and whether the courts or Congress may extend the doctrine to AI training. This motion is part of The AI Rights Project’s ongoing efforts to apply its Human Baseline Principle to precedent-setting AI litigation.
In the motion, The AI Rights Project raises two key questions that have not been fully addressed in the parties' summary judgment briefing. The first question centers on the premise that in a 2025 district court decision, Bartz v. The brief argues that the transformative-use inquiry has always presupposed human creative judgment, and that neither court examined whether the human-reader analogy holds. Additionally, it cites Thaler v. Perlmutter, 130 F.4th 1039 (D.C. Cir. 2025), which has separately been held to require a human author.
The second question is institutional. The brief cites Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186, 212 (2003), for the proposition that it is generally for Congress, not the courts, to decide how best to pursue the Copyright Clause’s objectives.
The filing is the second in The AI Rights Project’s amicus program, which applies its Human Baseline Principle to precedent-setting AI litigation. The Project previously moved for leave to file a brief raising a related question in In re Mosaic LLM Litigation, No. 3:24-cv-01451-CRB (N.D. Cal.) (Dkt. 420), where that motion remains pending. The AI Rights Project has no stake in which party prevails and accepts no funding from the major AI developers whose systems its work addresses.
The motion underscores the ongoing debate over the application of copyright law to AI-generated content, highlighting the need for a nuanced understanding of human creative judgment and the role of Congress in shaping the legal framework. The AI Rights Project’s work in this area is part of a broader effort to ensure that the legal principles governing AI and copyright remain aligned with the principles of human creativity and innovation.