What happened
On July 9, 2026, the Orlando Sentinel, New York Daily News, New York Times, and other Tribune/MediaNews Group publications filed a motion in Manhattan federal court (part of the ongoing OpenAI/Microsoft copyright infringement suit) seeking 'serious sanctions,' arguing OpenAI destroyed evidence and misrepresented its ability to search training data/output logs for stolen journalism, based on an April deposition of OpenAI's Project Giraffe witness. Plaintiffs seek monetary sanctions and adverse jury instructions.
Why it matters
This is a significant discovery-conduct escalation in one of the most consequential AI copyright cases pending in the US, with potential adverse-inference sanctions that could materially affect OpenAI's fair-use defense and the broader body of AI training-data copyright litigation nationally.
Action needed
AI developers engaged in litigation involving training-data provenance should note the heightened scrutiny on discovery conduct and evidence-preservation obligations signaled by this motion.