Bollywood v. OpenAI: India’s Music Giants Enter the AI Copyright Arena

India’s biggest music powerhouses—T-Series, Saregama, and Sony—just made their move in a growing legal standoff against OpenAI, aiming to join an existing copyright case in New Delhi. Their message? Hands off our songs.

The lawsuit, originally brought by Indian news agency ANI, accuses OpenAI’s ChatGPT of using protected content without permission to train its models. Now, the music industry wants in—saying their sound recordings, lyrics, and compositions are being scraped and used without consent, a serious threat to their IP and revenue.

This isn’t a small skirmish. We're talking about T-Series, the record label that releases thousands of tracks a year, and Saregama, the century-old music archive behind legends like Lata Mangeshkar. With Bollywood and Hindi pop fueling India’s massive music economy, the stakes are high—not just in India but globally.

The music labels say this issue isn’t just about them—it’s about how AI systems worldwide handle copyrighted content. They argue that the unchecked use of creative work by AI tools like ChatGPT undermines the entire entertainment ecosystem.

OpenAI has said it follows fair use rules and relies on public data to train its models. But courts in different countries are starting to test those claims. From book publishers in the U.S. to music rights groups in Germany, lawsuits are piling up, and now India—OpenAI’s second biggest user market—is heating up too.

The next hearing is set for February 21. Until then, one thing’s clear: the copyright clash between creatives and AI developers is just getting started—and Bollywood’s stepping into the spotlight.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/bollywood-music-labels-seek-challenge-openai-india-copyright-lawsuit-2025-02-14/